All right.

Looks like we do have a quorum.

So we're gonna go ahead and call the meeting to order.

It's one o'clock Tuesday, May 19th.

We're gonna go ahead and start our finance committee meeting with introductions to the left.

Brittany Norris for the administration.

Colleen Hamsey, Council Research.

Mary Stepopoulos, Office of General Counsel.

Bill Peterson, Council Auditor's Office.

Kim Taylor, Council Auditor.

Good afternoon, Rory Diamond District 13, the beaches.

Ron Salem, group two at large.

Will Lane District 3.

Joe Carlucci, District 5.

Good afternoon, Raw Aries, District 11.

Hello everybody, Kevin Carico, District 4.

Matt Harluch at large, group four, for a little while, maybe.

Good afternoon, Jimmy Peluso, just visiting.

Nick Howland at large, group three.

I'm a finance committee member, but I am sitting all the way over here because I have a little bit of a cough every so often.

Everyone who went on the Austin chamber trip last week came back with a little bit of the crud.

I don't know if you did, Kevin, but I did.

So I don't wanna cough on anybody.

So I'm self uh isolating over in the far end of the S.

Thanks.

Okay, 397.

Okay.

All right, committee members.

Uh we are gonna go ahead and go through the agenda.

We've got uh some items that we're moving around to accommodate some of our folks in the audience, and then we have a couple of public comment cards that Miss Rebecca is.

It's okay, we got time, you don't need to rush.

Um, taking up, so let's see.

Okay, do you need to speak?

Okay, you're recognized.

Thank you, Chair.

I've asked Mr.

Peterson to review our hurricane account to determine where we are in terms of collecting dollars from the feds.

Since we've not had a hurricane in around 18 months, I think it's a good time to see where that uh where that fund relies.

He's indicated the last meeting in June, he'll provide a report to the finance committee.

Just wanted to let everybody know that.

Thank you, Chair.

All right, thank you.

We also wanna welcome Finance Committee member, Ms.

Jacoby Pittman, and we also have Councilmember Rockman Johnson uh that has just joined us.

So, okay, so as we were saying, we're gonna go through the agenda.

We have a presentation today by Miss Taylor, then we will go to our public comment cards, then we'll get into the agenda.

Um so let's just look through this real quick and I can kind of give everyone a heads up of what we're gonna be doing.

So items number uh one, two, three, four, five are all deferred, and then we are gonna go to page sixteen, item number twenty-four, twenty twenty-six, three thirty-seven.

That will be taken up first.

Let me make sure we're there.

So, yeah, 24 item, 2026 337.

That'll be item action item number one, and then we're gonna go back to page four, item number six, twenty twenty-six three one two, regular action item, item number seven, regular action, uh eight, nine, and ten, all up for normal action.

Items number 11 and 12 are being deferred.

Item 13, uh 2026.

I think Council Member Gay is gonna be joining us for that one.

Um, and then item number 14, 2026, 322.

Ms.

Joyce Morgan, have you made have you are you here?

She said she was gonna be a little bit late, so we might skip over that one if if her and her team are not able to be here.

Um, and then six uh okay.

So after 14, we're gonna go to item number 49, which is I believe the CIA.

That's the CIA.

Page 26, item number 49, 2026, 419, and that will be after item 14.

So then item, we'll go to item uh 15, and then 16, 17, 18, 1920, all normal, and then item number 22, 2026, 335.

That's a meridian waste bill that's being deferred, and then item number 23, 2026, 336.

Uh that's Edward Waters University bill.

We have a rules amendment on that.

And then item number 24 was already moved up.

And then from there, I think the agenda is pretty much the same for the rest of the agenda, everybody.

So we need to go all the way through it just for the sake of time.

Um, but yeah, we'll kind of just go through the rest of the agenda in normal order.

Um Mr.

Holland.

Did we did I mention your bill?

Okay.

Well, make sure you get your uh requested now.

No, I'm just kidding.

Well, which one?

45.

Okay.

All right.

We'll go to that before we go to CIA.

All right.

So item number 45.

We will take up after item 14.

Okay.

All right.

So that is everything.

All right.

So let's go ahead and get started with Ms.

Taylor, your presentations, please.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Through the chair to the committee.

Um, one of the documents you have at your desk is the annual recapture.

This is taking a look at all the funds the finance department does it, submits it to us, and we go back and forth and review.

Um, so this is the final memo on any any funds that received a general fund contribution to see if we can recapture those back to the general fund, which they will fall into operating reserve.

So the total amount related to the 2425 year was 8.4 million.

Um, you'll see on page two of the memo the various funds that will be recaptured.

Um, I do want to mention that the solid waste uh disposal fund you'll see has six point five million, so that's less than that loan that was anticipated for 2425.

So that will reduce that loan amount by not having to utilize as much as was anticipated in the budget.

Um so I'm happy to answer any questions.

I do want to mention there are two negative cash funds, that's a budget ordinance requirement.

So those funds will be addressed in legislation.

Um I also want to mention that MBRC has already received an item related to the recapture.

Uh the mayor's administration, uh, believe this past week ago Monday, uh, is proposing to put that towards completion grants.

So after they address the two negative cash funds that are about $150,000, they're proposing to take the balance and apply it towards completion grants.

That will come before you as legislation for you to act upon, but I do want to mention that.

Um I believe I've covered everything in this memo.

If you have any questions before I move on to the next item, all right.

We have no speakers in the queue for questions.

Continue.

Yes, sir.

The next item that you have at your desk is just a brief summary of our quarterly summary report that we issued this past Friday.

Um you have four pages related to the general fund that I just want to mention.

Uh, if you turn to page two, you'll see your um overall anticipated variance is about 30.4 million.

That's your projected variance that you're in.

So that would be a positive number.

That is addressing still the two percent lapse is covered within that.

And so you still have that um remaining, that's the anticipated amount.

Uh, you'll see in revenues there's a projected nine point eight million dollar positive and overage more revenues.

Uh there is an adjustment that will need to be made for some mutual aid that was about nine million recorded incorrectly.

Uh, but we do think some of these estimates are conservative.

So overall, that 30 million ish number appears to be a pretty good number.

It's up from 20 million in the first quarter that was the year-end projected um surplus.

So overall in the general fund, no big uh budgetary issues.

I do want to mention if you turn to it's the third page in your document.

Um, this isn't uh the expenditures by department in the general fund.

Uh JSO overall, there are six departments that they have.

When you group them, they have a 14.8 million dollar projected surplus.

Uh so do not be concerned if you see some individual areas that have projected negatives.

Uh, overall, they're projected to be fine.

Uh there are eight departments that are projected to be have negative variances or exceed their budget at year end.

Um most of these are due to the laps not being able to be covered, either through vacancies or trimming other costs.

Um that's what's contributing to most of those.

Other than, of course, I'll mention um some of the anomalies.

Uh mayor's department, that one was where the council had um made cuts to that department, so that is projected to be over by 264,000 at year in.

And then fire rescue has some fleet, um, of course, diesel gas, those sorts of charges where they are projected to go over as well.

But the majority um is related to the laps.

Special events, that is a separate fund within the city, they may have to come back to council because they are projecting to go over council authority on their spending level.

Group health is projected to be okay.

If you look at the report, it does not take into account the pharmaceutical rebate that's an annual rebate, but by year end they should be okay within that.

They will still have to utilize likely the operating reserves when they report because they will not have sufficient reserves within that group health fund.

As far as independent agencies, I just want to briefly mention that all of them are projecting to be okay.

The main issue is JTA.

Other than that one, they are projecting uh significant revenue shortfalls that they are attempting to address this year by not impacting services, but they are doing um furlough days for employees.

They are not filling positions, uh they are eliminating some positions, they are uh cutting training, professional contracts, making a number of cost containment adjustments.

Um I do want to mention on the CTC, that original budget was about 10 million lower than what it should have been to have full cost.

Uh, while they are projecting a number to address that, I'm not sure if that's still too low to be able to get there.

So I think they will still have some budgetary adjustments to make.

Uh they may have to use reserves.

They if you'll recall we had a budget amendment in 2425 where they had to use some of their reserves to meet their budget.

Of course, that's a one-time funding source, so that's not something you want to see to maintain their recurring budget, but that's the main independent agency that I wanted to mention that is having some budgetary issues to address.

Um, that's all in the quarterly summary.

If there are any questions, uh all right, any speakers in the queue on that.

Okay, Councilmember Landon, you recognize it.

Thank you, Chair.

Just a couple questions.

Uh, through the chair to Miss Taylor, uh, regarding the state shared revenues.

I know JTA has been experiencing the same thing.

Uh I guess it's uh as we go into 2027.

How do we ensure that like we're budgeting on what the actual run rate this year is rather than over budget like we did this year?

And I guess maybe that's an administration uh question more so than you.

Through the chair, um, I'm happy to try to answer.

There are a couple things that are at play that we believe at least.

I think some of the holidays, the tax holidays are on more items, and so we're seeing that impact a little more, and that's a little bit harder to predict and adjust to that.

Um, also there was a um a house bill last year, uh, not in this session, but last year that passed, um, that does affect there's a um basically it affects ours by about 1.7 percent.

There's an amount that is going towards um grants uh for um I'm not thinking of the right word, infrastructure and the right-aways, um it's for economic grants.

So it's pulling some of that money off the big bucket of statewide spending for sales tax, so it is impacting us by about two million is part of that eight to nine million uh downturn.

So we'll take a look at that again to make sure that that's taken into account in the numbers.

Thank you.

Through the chair to Miss Taylor.

Next question self-insurance fund, it says that we're looking at a favorable budget variance of about two million at year in.

Is that two million above and beyond the money we already took out?

We had the surplus earlier in the year that I believe council Carlicci had legislation that put that surplus to the shipyards cash grant, I believe it was.

Is this uh is this an additional favorable variance?

Through the chair to Councilmember Lane, and yes, sir.

That is for this current year, that was prior year monies that um Council Member Curlicci had taken.

So that's the projected for this year.

Through the chair, thank you, Miss Taylor.

Okay, so that was my uh so it looks like we budgeted correctly then this year, instead of having a 25 million dollar variance, we got a $2 million dollar variance.

Through the chair, yes, sir.

The first quarter projected about an 11 million variance.

Of course, this one is very um fluid, and the projections change, but we're that methodology change seems to be helping not to have these large excess amounts.

Thank you.

And through the chair, final uh question, it's actually a comment.

Um JTA, I'm I'm not gonna harp on what's in here.

I did meet with JTA, and I encourage all of my colleagues too.

It is complex.

They have a lot of changes that they're gonna propose in the next year budget.

Uh, but again, it it could be its own hour meeting if we went through their financials here.

So I just encourage you.

I think it was last week or the week before they emailed all of us wanting to meet.

So I'll just encourage you to take that meeting because it is uh it is in-depth and it's important.

So just want to put that out there to take uh them up on that opportunity.

All right, thank you for that.

And now we have Councilmember Salem.

Thank you, Chair.

Through the chair to Ms.

Taylor, the mayor's office.

How much of that two sixty-four thousand dollar variance is due to the two percent?

And how much it is that were they just over budget?

Through the chair to council member Salem.

Their laps that was put in their department was about 90,000, so it's kind of all mixed together at this point, but the council had made a reduction of 435,000 in total to their budget, and then the 90,000 was on top of that.

So it's just projected go over because all of those things being a factor.

Through the chair, have there been any efforts to transfer money from other departments to cover that deficit?

Through the chair to council member seal, and none that I recall on on MBRC, we have not seen any so far this year to move dollars.

Thank you.

All right, we have no other speakers.

All right, thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Through the chair to the committee, the next one is uh we issued a follow-up on the stormwater fee audit.

Uh so this was our second follow-up, and um this was looking at really the accuracy of the fees, the billing of those fees.

Um, and I'll just mention a couple items, still policies and procedures to make sure that we're we're accurately calculating uh those items to make sure that that revenue is being collected.

And then the main other thing is they are now utilizing a third-party vendor for helping with those calculations.

They just need to make sure they're using that consistently.

Um, so that that's really we'll follow up again for a third follow-up to make sure that that's being properly calculated.

Happy to answer any questions on that one.

No questions, okay.

If not, the last item that I have, uh, Mr.

Chairman is our report on employee reimbursements.

Uh, this was report 906 issued last Friday, and this is kind of the third leg that I've mentioned in working uh for council member Salem.

We've had the accounts payable and then the P cards, and then employee reimbursements is related to any, it's mainly uh related to city travel where employees are turning in for reimbursement items.

That's the main item that's utilized.

Um I'm gonna do 50,000 foot level for purposes.

I know you have a very busy agenda.

Um, overall, we looked at the 24-25 year about 403,000 was the total population.

We looked at sample testing, we also did some analytics on it and found that from an overall standpoint uh reimbursements were appropriate, sufficiently documented, properly approved, and accurately recorded.

We did have some issues with timeliness, so people turning in their reports, managers approving them timely, the um accounting division doing their review, some timeliness issues there, some other areas that I'll just briefly mention, incomplete policies and procedures again to ensure that people know what can be reimbursed for, that the if they don't have receipts, all of those sorts of things.

We have a list in our report.

Um cash advances are a rare item, but people are still advanced for travel when they are gone more than five days.

So ensuring that those processes are working right.

We did have issues with uh those not being timely processed or not properly closed, and so you run the risk of people being potentially reimbursed twice.

We only had uh minor issues with that, but we want to ensure that those are closed out when you're getting advances and going on a trip, that you come back from that trip and report those.

But we looked at a five-year period and there was about 22,000, so it is not a common occurrence to have cash advances.

Um we had timeliness issues on some expense reports that were not fully processed, kind of hanging in the system, not recorded in the GL.

Configuration of the system not being uh set up properly for uh meal reimbursements, um, some inaccuracies, very limited amounts.

Again, we overall concluded that that they had met the the accuracy.

Um, there were minor uh employee reimbursement policy violations.

This just related to people getting reimbursed for mileage, they do have to have their city training certification for your city driver's license that you're issued, so ensuring that occurs, deactivation of terminated employees for access to the system, and then just uh overall improvements to the system to help the process overall.

Um, if if you have any specific questions afterwards, I'm happy to get with you on that.

Um, but that's the end of my report, Mr.

Chairman.

All right, we have uh Councilmember Salem.

You're recognized.

Thank you, Chair.

Through the chair to Ms.

Taylor.

Did you perform the work-at-home audit earlier in the year?

And has there been any follow-up with a with the new policy procedure on work from home?

Through the chair to council member Salem, we did not perform an audit of that.

Was that the inspector general through the chair to your knowledge?

Also, I believe so.

Wasn't there a commitment through the chair to to the council that there'd be a new uh policy and procedure that would be put out to reflect the changes?

Through the chair, I believe that's the case, but we were not involved at all in that.

Through the chair to Ms.

Norris.

Are you aware?

Uh has that new procedure been published?

Has anybody seen it?

Uh I am not aware.

I will have to double check and get back to you, please.

Thank you.

All right.

Uh we have Council President Caraca, you're recognized.

Uh, thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Not related to the report, just wanted to acknowledge some past presidents, of course, in addition to past president Salem and President Carlucci, who was here.

We have past president Sam Newby, my favorite president in the house.

Obviously, Jerry Holland is here, as president while we're going around, Greg Anderson, past president is in the building, and uh Fire Chief Golden is in the house.

And being the uh past president newbie is here, I think he's waiting on the EWC.

Uh, I know he has a uh an engagement later.

If we can move that up at any time at your convenience, that would be great, thank you.

All right, thank you.

I didn't realize we had so many past council presidents in here, but that is that is really impressive.

Um yeah, we'll we can we'll go to uh we'll go to bill number 45, and then we will go to what what bill is EWU?

Okay, then we'll go to 23 and then we'll go to 49.

So after action after item number 14, 2026 through 22.

We'll go to um Mr.

Holland, past President Jerry Holland's bill number 45, and then we'll go to item number 23.

Past President Sam Newby's bill, uh, and then we'll go to item number 49 uh with the CIA.

So that is that is the new order.

Uh happy to accommodate that.

Uh Ms.

Norris, you're recognized.

Thank you, Chair.

Is this an agenda change because actually?

I was gonna say our CFO Anna Brochet is here.

Can speak to Councilmember Salem's question.

Also, past president.

Oh, okay.

Good afternoon.

Uh Anna Brochet Finance.

Uh, through the chair to um Councilman Salem, the policy for work from home has been issued.

Um, I think it was in April.

I'm not exactly sure the date.

I'd like to see it.

I I don't know that it was sent to the council.

I don't recall seeing it.

I'll get with Miss Hayes.

Thank you.

Okay.

All righty.

We have no one else in the queue.

We have some public comment cards.

There will be two minutes available for public comment, and then we are gonna get into the agenda.

So, first up, uh Chad Muncie, followed by Jonathan and Seta, Tom Gray, Sam Efron.

Good afternoon.

Thank you.

Uh Chad Muncie, 1808 Kings Avenue.

Uh, here in support of Bill 2026 0419.

Um, just like to read a little short note.

Um, food is the fabric that defines a city.

Restaurants have made celebrities out of chefs and made destinations out of made destin cities destinations for travelers.

When visiting a new city after booking a hotel.

What's your next search?

Where am I going to dine out?

Dining out from food trucks to find dining, is the way our community socializes.

It's not just about fueling our body, it's about family celebrations, date nights, catching up with friends.

Ask any local restaurant owner what is their greatest obstacle in operating their business, and I can assure you on the top of that list will be finding quality staff.

From line cooks to managers, our city struggles to find qualified, enthusiastic staff to help run our restaurants.

I believe this is in due part to the negative perceptions that seem to plague our industry.

The Culinary Institute of America prepares its graduates to treat the industry as a career, not just a fill-in part-time job until someone gets a real job.

And that is the key to shifting the dynamic from perceptions to realities.

The reality that the hospitality industry is a viable, invigorating, and exciting career choice that personally has been both incredibly fulfilling and financially successful.

Bringing the Culinary Institute to downtown Jacksonville will shine a spotlight on our city that only a few select others can lay claim.

The CIA's reputation brings immediate respect and attention from all the hospital from all of the hospitality world.

As we continue to develop downtown, it is imperative to include decisions that go beyond just residential and entertainment.

Decisions that help increase our city's ability to not only attract talented individuals to move here, but to encourage our local talent to stay here.

Much like the UF campus being developed, the CIA will be an absolute game changer for our incredible city.

I encourage all members of the committee and the entire council to move forward these incentives.

It will only have one result.

Putting Jacksonville on the nation's hospitality map, further positioning us as a city for the future.

Thank you.

All right.

Mr.

Jonathan Nsetta.

Good afternoon, Council members.

Just want to thank you for the opportunity to speak and thank you for all the work you all do.

Jonathan and Seta, 4987, River Point Road, Jacksonville, Florida, Restaurant Orsay.

I just want to speak on the importance of having the Culinary Institute of America here.

It's a rare opportunity to get such a prestigious school to a smaller market like Jacksonville.

I think there's a great opportunity for national attention to strengthen our needs as restaurateurs, which are skilled restaurant workers in general.

This could be a sea change for our culinary scene in Jacksonville at a level that we've never seen.

There's been so much good work done by so many great chefs up until this point, and I really feel this could be the catalyst to take us to the next level.

Competing with other markets in Florida, like Miami and Orlando, who already have Michelin side restaurants and already have a reputation for food.

This allows us to take what we built and take it further.

My biggest need right now is quality workforce in general, quality cooks and chefs, and this would be a game changer for all of us for sure.

And this is not just about downtown or this area, this is about Jacksonville as a whole, an opportunity for people seeking to better themselves in this chosen vocation.

You know, a big part of it too is a lot of our talent leaves this city to go elsewhere in our industry.

And this would allow them to stay here, do the education here, and hopefully reinvest in the community that they grew up and care so much about.

I think it would be a huge sea change and a game changer for our industry, and I know it would be for us as restaurateurs.

Um appreciate you all listening to us, and uh thank you for the opportunity again.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Next we have Tom Gray, followed by Sam Efron.

Hi, I'm Tom Gray here to speak on item uh 0419 on behalf of the Culinary Institute of America coming to Jacksonville, Florida, with the support of the city of Jacksonville.

I'm both a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, as well as a former employee of Greystone, the CIA's campus located in the Napa Valley.

After graduating from CIA Hyde Park, I lived and worked in cities across the country building my craft.

I was hired by the CIA to open the West Coast campus where I was a SUS chef and ultimately executive sous chef at Graystone Restaurant.

I arrived in Napa Valley in 1995 to join the opening team of the new campus.

It was housed in a historic winery building that had been had undergone a renovation to turn it into the culinary campus, classrooms, administrative offices, restaurant, retail store.

After driving across country for days and making the exit at the south end of Napa through downtown Napa and heading north to 29 to St.

Helena, where the campus is located, I can honestly say I was fairly disappointed.

I expected a community bursting with excitement, exciting restaurants, cutting edge cuisine styles, amazing design, epitome of farm table cooking.

It was not what I saw.

In fact, it was fairly similar to Jacksonville in the early 90s, as far as I could tell from initial impressions.

That quickly evolved, however, in the five years that I was there, I saw the evolution not just of downtown Lappa, but also St.

Helena, Calistoga, Hillsburg, and the other neighboring communities.

The little town started to grow with new energy of restaurants and culinary institute and culinary students within a short year as it evolved not only to be a world class wine destination, but a world-renowned culinary destination.

Since opening my first restaurant here in 99 until today, our restaurants have literally created thousands of jobs.

In addition to the jobs off campus, the campus would itself create.

If we had a culinary school helping to develop and train students at the highest level, it would benefit all the currently operating restaurants as well as provide a location for graduates to establish roots, grow their own concepts.

As the community grows, the culinary scene should grow with it.

This is the type of opportunity that'll help all of Jacksonville become a culinary destination.

This is an opportunity now presents itself at Jacksonville.

We should not pass it up.

This is not just a culinary school seeking to establish roots.

This is the culinary institute of America, the preeminent school for developing culinary talent in our country.

So once in a lifetime, once in the generation opportunity.

Alright, thank you.

Thank you.

Sam Efron.

Hi, my name is Sam Efron.

I'm the chef owner of Taverna Restaurant, 1986, San Marco Boulevard, and Oceana as well.

Um here to speak on for the Culinary Institute of America for ordinance 419.

I am also a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America.

When I spoke with the president uh when he came here to visit of uh the CIA, my first question was like why Jacksonville?

What why would you want to come to Jacksonville for when you have all these other cities in Florida that just seem more prominent and make more sense?

And he convinced me, he's like, look, Jacksonville has so much going on and the potential for what Jacksonville has.

And it's uh a lot like where their campus in San Antonio and it's um for what Jacksonville needs.

This brings so much, you know, it's it's such a prominent place.

Um the uh the Culinary Institute of America is such a prominent establishment that it helps put Jacksonville on the map and helps us to attain the employment and the talent that we need as restaurant tours that, as you've heard, we are all lacking.

You know, we've um uh me, John, Tom, we all went to Culinary Institute of America.

We left Jackson, we came back here because this is our home.

We love Jacksonville, we know the potential of what it could bring here.

But our biggest struggle is finding the staff and the talent to help us be on the level that we really want to be.

Um, we all are sharing employees all the time because they're training at one place with us for a couple years, and then they'll move on to the next.

This school helps bring that education that's needed that we can help develop staff.

It's gonna um, you know, it's also gonna bring so much to the city of Jacksonville as far as events, um, everything else that Jacksonville's looking forward to help develop.

All right, thank you.

Now, next we have Jonas Lowe.

Followed by Tyra Smood.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

Um, I'm here to talk about the name and address.

Name and address.

Oh, uh, Jonas Low, BB's restaurant, 1019 Hendrix Avenue.

Thank you.

And Scottie's restaurant, 3556 St.

John's Avenue.

Um, you can talk about CIN, how important uh the Culinary Institute of America being in downtown Jacksonville.

Uh as far as we know, um, a lot of uh people would like to talk about the quality of food, um, employment, uh, all those are very important points.

But the most important thing is to have um to be in a staple um in Jacksonville, because we all go to Chicago, San Francisco, New York, and all have all great restaurants, and we want to make sure that Jacksonville also play a big part.

And in order to do that, we need quality.

We need strong um chefs, strong cooks, people that understand, and not just an hourly person that comes in to you know just to grill a steak.

But we need uh a lot of creativity, innovation, uh, and all this will come from a good school like CIA.

And I'm not from CIA, I'm from Johnson and Wills University, but I definitely support uh the you know the school being in Jacksonville.

Thank you very much, guys.

All right, thank you.

Next we have Tyra Smoot.

Hi, I'm let's put my glasses on.

I'm Tyra Smoody.

I'm here to um my address is on file.

I'm here to speak to um 0356 resolution to recommend that the jail should not be in a historically redlined neighborhood area.

Primarily, I'm here because I don't think it's fair.

Um, redlined areas need to be supported and protected, their communities need to be nurtured, not undermined.

Um, because the city does not have a great track record on this.

If you look at what's happened in Brentwood with the morgue, and also by evidence by your own eyes, when you go through a red line neighborhood, I believe that this recommendation needs to go through to protect these areas to have um to limit them being further um undermined.

People here um today before me have been talking about trying to make um Jacksonville a city of um hospitality, and I I certainly I chose to make Jacksonville my um residence.

I I chose it about six years ago, and I've um um lived in other places.

I'm originally from Minnesota and I have visitors from there coming here.

I lived in London, I have people coming here from there.

I also have been in Miami, and I have people coming um from those areas to visit me.

I have to explain to them what is this redlined area.

I have to explain to them why I live in a great little neighborhood in Avondale, but just across the tracks, it's not so cool.

Jacksonville will never become this hospitality city and tell me deal with this stuff.

We can't sweep it under the rug.

We are a quilt, okay.

We're all maybe different neighborhoods, and we'll never be exactly the same.

But we have to take care of that whole quilt, all as one, so we don't so it all fits together, not one part of its rot, rotting.

Anyways, thank you.

All right, thank you.

Next we have Carnell Oliver, followed by Wells Todd, and then Bobby O'Connor, Jake Jacobs, and Latrina Dowdell.

Um, our address is on file.

I want to have a conversation real quick about the budget coming 2027, 28.

I expect the mayor when she leaves office after she loses her reelection.

She's gonna leave a mess behind for the next mayor to clean up, but every mayor does it.

So we need to start having conversations about impact fees.

Number one, focus on stabilizing neighborhoods, dealing with housing.

That's number two.

If I can get that done, that's one strategic piece I can move on the chess board.

The second strategic piece is to break this city up, go back to those city limits.

It's either y'all do it, or I take it to the Florida State Legislature.

Because the Bill 2026, 056 ain't none but political talking point.

It has no substance, it has no backing.

If communities like mine are so important, they should have took care of that and then underneath consolidation.

The lessons that I'm learning from the past has pissed me off to a point, I want to break everything up.

Everybody stays in their own lane.

Nobody gets in nobody's business no more.

Because there's too many policies coming down the pipeline from the federal level for us as black Americans to miss our opportunity.

The opportunity zone is the number one key driver to it.

So I need to break this city up.

All right, next we have Wells Todd.

Good afternoon.

My name is Wells Todd.

I'm with uh Take Em Down Jackson.

My address is on file.

Um yesterday in this chamber, uh, we talked about um redlining.

And I'm here to talk about this proposal to keep the jail out of the neighborhoods that have been redlined.

And some of you said you understood the history of redlining, and if you understand the history of redlining, that's all the more reason to make sure that a jail is not built in a redlined area.

If you understand the psychological and economic exploitation that has happened in the African-American history and communities, then you will understand the need to make sure jail is not built.

If you continue to consider putting this institution in a red line community, what you are doing is perpetuating the racism and bigotry that already exists.

I don't think you really understand the damage that redlining has done to the African American community.

And uh right now we don't have enough time to break some of that down, but once again, if you continue on this march of even considering putting a jail in the black community, I will repeat you are perpetuating institution of racism and bigotry.

Thank you.

All right, next we have Bobby O'Connor.

So good to see you all.

I'm here to talk about the resolution that council member Peluso has put forward 356.

I've spoken about that yesterday at the neighborhoods committee and also the rules committee, and I'm here again.

Some of you gentlemen up there were here yesterday, so you could probably say what I had to say, and I'm gonna say it again.

I do not think a jail should be put in a red line community.

I want you to please support councilmember Peluso's resolution.

I'm back, even though yesterday it was an unanimous that you all voted who were on this committee against this proposal.

I'm back because I believe in miracles, and I believe that sometimes people do wake up to what is the right thing to do.

This is a symbolic gesture, it will cost no money.

A lot of the questions you all are the finance committee and the questions today to the council auditor are about money.

This will cost nothing.

There is nothing negative about this proposal, this resolution.

It was it's all positive.

As I said yesterday, if you know anything about acupuncture, it is about the energy system that lives in our bodies, and an acupuncture treatment interrupts the energy flow so that it can flow more smoothly.

This would be an acupuncture treatment to our city, and the energy would flow more smoothly if you all stood in solidarity with this group of people.

This group of people, African Americans, whose communities were red, have been redlined forever, since you know, 1930s for sure, and we still the scars are still there.

All right.

Next we have Jake Jacobs.

Jake Jacobs, 1415 Pine Island Drive.

I'd like to first thank all the committee members that have taken the time to meet with me one-on-one to discuss the need for the Hog Pine Creek watershed analysis, and those that have supported the operator will support Councilman Diamond's uh line item in the budget for this year's study.

To those members that haven't I haven't been able to meet with yet, I'd greatly appreciate the opportunity to discuss this one-on-one.

Um I just want to give two updates.

Uh, one, I went to the uh Florida Inland Navigation District meeting on Friday when I was there.

I got an unsolicited proposal for the study.

I uh Councilman Diamond, hopefully, this will be useful to you and the uh public works department as uh you to try to determine what uh amount of money needs to be set aside for the study of the scoping and the timing.

And secondly, um, in terms of the scoping uh and financing, I think it would be appropriate to have uh JEA uh participate in the scoping and the financing.

They're key stakeholder.

They've got seven huge towers in Hog Pen Creek.

Um they did a lot of work to those towers in 2013 through 2018 and in 2023, during which they left massive barges there for much longer than was expected and caused these massive uh sediment bars.

Um, so I think it would be to uh to the city's benefit to have them involved as well uh to that regard, and I appreciate your time and I hope to meet with the remaining city council people that I've not yet been able to.

Thank you.

Alright, next we have uh Latrina Dowdell, and then we have final speaker, Jalisa Julicia Lewis.

Yeah.

Hello, I'm Latrina Dowdell, 3316 Gladys Street, Jacksonville, Florida, 3209.

I'm speaking about the issue we're having with the jail uh inconsiderate for our red line community, and I just want to say that our bad habits has become your hustle.

We woke in, we're awakened now, so it's no need to tell us no woke.

What we want to do is to support you in growth and elevation, spiritual elevation.

We've become poor that you may become rich.

We no longer want to do that.

What we want you to do is consider us as part of humanity instead of using us as the foundational stone in which you build your hierarchy.

We are tired of being the bottom because we know better than that.

So who's the master, the person that starts the fire, observe the fire, overcome it?

We've done that several times, pretending that we've been less than in our community.

So we know that you know what you're doing, because if you didn't know it, you wouldn't bring us programs over programs over saturating communities with uh housing development and give them a limitation on how much money comes into the community on how much you could build.

You have to make $50,000 and you say, oh, the social determinants of health is that you need more education.

Is it our education that's needed?

Because we research all the time how to survive, or is it academia that's starting these fires in our communities and expecting us to be in survival mode all the time?

We don't want to do that anymore.

We want just living just like everybody else.

And I've said several times with the social determinants of health.

If you want to clear out and clean up Jacksonville, we have the largest landmass.

Take that uh hierarchy of the three fourths of our community that gets most of the money, bend that paper in half, and anybody that's pissing each other, learn to share the wealth, the health, and all the disparities in the community, and stop putting it in one particular area, causing a hard problem for us.

Thank you for your time.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

Next, uh Julicia Lewis, and then Lashonda Holloway after her.

Good afternoon, um everyone.

My name is Julie Sia Lewis, addresses on file.

I'm here to speak and support the resolution introduced by my council member Jimmy Peluso.

I believe it's 2030, 2026 0356.

So I know based on yesterday's vote, a lot of the folks up here are um against this, and I imagine there could be a various different amount of reasons.

One, you kind of view it as a talking point as someone mentioned before, or you see this as making something that's economic about race or racializing something, or you, you know, maybe just think that it's economic pandering, that there's better ways that we can help uh protect our communities.

And to all of that, um, and I've thought about that as well, and I think I was really inspired hearing, you know, the Culinary Institute of America coming, the sense of the things that we can do to help promote growth in downtown and its surrounding areas.

And what's important to remember, downtown and its surrounding areas includes those red line communities, um, those that have been historically impacted and need, you know, the same sort of economic support.

We're talking about people's property values, talking about their homes, things that ensures generational wealth, putting a jail in those historic neighborhoods where most other modern cities, uh historic neighborhoods are tourism attractions.

I think about historic stand, the school that I graduated from and my great-grandmother graduated from, and right now it's hollow.

That could have been an amazing African-American museum that could attract tourists, and also uh pay homage to the people that still live in those neighborhoods that are making the core where Jacksonville started on North Bank.

And so I understand there's a lot of reasons why you might be against it, but I really do hope that you consider doing this.

It might seem small, but for a lot of people who uh might not trust uh city council right now, this more so is drawing a line in the sand.

So to show that if you come and show out like other neighborhoods have before and successfully have kept things out of their neighborhoods that they don't want.

Um, that goes true for our red line communities historically, however, you want to define there's so many ways to define it.

So again, I hope you um consider more options than that.

Thank you.

All right, thank you for your time.

All right, our last speaker card is Lashonda Holloway, and if there's any other cards that come in, they will be heard at the end of the meeting if time permits.

So, with that, Ms.

Holloway, the floor is yours.

Good afternoon, council.

My name is Lashonda Holloway, and my address appears on File.

Every cycle, we have to come to this council and complain about the kinds of conditions that are on the north side, yet you continue to cut money from the budget from things that are preventative.

Now you want to put a jail on the north side.

We know that you have denied investment, you have denied opportunity, and denied the same protections given to other communities.

Those policies created concentrated poverty, environmental burdens, underfunded schools, and disinvestment that residents are still fighting to overcome today.

So to place a jail in one of those same communities is not progress.

It is repeating the same pattern under a different name.

When a city chooses where to place its burdens, it reveals who it values.

Wealthier neighborhoods are rarely asked to absorb facilities that bring stigma, traffic, surveillance, and depressed economic growth.

Yet historically marginalized communities that are redlined are repeatedly expected to carry those costs.

That is not equitable planning, that is institutional continuation of redlining.

A jail does not create the kind of long-term prosperity that this city says it wants.

It does not increase home ownership.

It does not attract grocery stores, health care clinics, parks, or quality jobs.

It sends a message to residents and children that their neighborhood is seen primarily as a place for containment rather than investment.

Imagine instead what could happen if the same political will and funding were directed towards affordable housing, mental health treatment, and workforce development.

Thank you.

All right.

Committee members, that concludes our public comment.

And again, if there's any other cards that come in after that, we will take those up at the end of the meeting if time permits.

Thank you, sir.

I know you have an action item on the agenda.

So with that, we're gonna go ahead into the agenda.

Page two, item number one, 2024, 627 is deferred.

Item number two, 2024, 966 is deferred.

Item number three, 2025, 361 is deferred.

Item number four, twenty twenty-five, seven seven five is deferred.

Item number five, twenty twenty-six, two two two seven is deferred.

And that brings us to item number twenty-four on page sixteen, twenty twenty-six three thirty-seven.

We have a motion and a second on the amendment.

Can someone please explain the amendment?

Through the chair of the committee, the amendment clarifies within the reverter section the restricted use period is the greater of five years or the time period in which the vehicle retains any JSO insignia, changes oversight of the vehicle monitoring from fleet management to JSON and then attaches a revised donation agreement to clarify the sheriff can approve an assignment of uh the agreement and correct Mary Scribbers.

All right.

We have a motion and second on the amendment.

All in favor of the amendment signified by saying aye.

Any opposed?

The amendment carries.

Move the bill as a second.

Motion and second on the bill as amended.

No one in the queue, open the ballot, record your vote.

Item number 24, 2026, 337.

That's okay.

All right.

There we go.

Eight Yaya, zero nays.

By direction, you've approved 226 337.

Alright, we're gonna go back to page four, item number six, twenty twenty-six three one two.

All right, we have a motion, a second on the bill.

No one in the queue, no discussion, open the ballot, record your vote.

How do we have eight?

Oh.

All right, we have a vote on 2026 312.

Okay, 688, 8A 0NA's.

By your action you've approved 2026 312.

Councilmember Aries, recognized.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and to the auditors.

Um, do you know if this um portion of the funding goes towards our commitment towards the CBA contributions?

Through the chair to Councilmember Arius, it would still count towards those uh dollar amounts.

Perfect, thank you.

Okay, item number seven, twenty twenty-six three one three.

Motion a second on the bill.

No one in the queue.

Open the ballot, record your vote.

Eight, yay, zero nays.

By your action, you've approved 2026 313.

Item number eight, 2026, 314.

Motion and second on the bill, no discussion.

Open the ballot, record your vote.

Eight, yay, zero nays.

By your action, you've approved, twenty twenty-six, three one four.

Item number nine, twenty twenty-six, three one five.

Motion to second on the amendment.

Can someone please explain the amendment?

Through the chair of the committee, the amendment attaches the corrected budget document from uh Harbor Waterway Dispendent Special District.

All right.

No one in the queue.

All in favor of the amendment.

Signified by saying aye.

Any opposed?

The amendment carries.

Move the bill as a second.

Motion and second on the bill as amended.

No one in the queue.

Open the ballot, record your vote.

Eight yes, zero nays.

By your action, you've approved, twenty twenty-six, three one five.

Item number ten, twenty twenty-six three one six.

Motion and second on the bill.

No speakers in the queue.

Open the ballot.

Record your vote.

Eight yes, zero nays.

By your action, you've approved, twenty twenty-six, three one six.

Item number eleven, twenty twenty-six three one eight is deferred.

Item number twelve, twenty twenty-six-three two zero is deferred.

Item number thirteen, twenty twenty-six, three twenty-one.

All right, we have a motion and second on the amendment.

Can someone please explain the amendment?

Through the chair of the committee, the amendment clarifies the solid waste mitigation fundfill facility that uh the dollars are coming from, 72,000 from the real coast site and 110,000 from the coastal recycling site, and then attaches a revised exhibit one BT to correct some account codes.

All right.

We have no one in the queue on the amendment.

All in favor of the amendment signified by saying aye.

Any opposed?

The amendment carries.

Move the bill as second.

Motion and second on the bill as amended.

Councilmember Aries, you recognize.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh, just adding me as a co-sponsor to this.

Thank you.

All right.

No one else in the queue.

Let's open the ballot, record your vote.

Did you want to speak, Councilmember Gay?

Okay.

Thank you for being here.

Eight yay, zero nays.

By direction you've approved, twenty twenty-six, three twenty-one.

Item number fourteen, twenty twenty-six, three twenty-two.

Motion and second on the amendment.

Can someone please explain the amendment?

Yes, sir.

Through the chair.

Uh this attaches a revised exhibit one to reflect the removal of funding for the salary for one position that was originally added back back in.

There were two unfunded positions in 2526.

Only one of those is being restored.

Add a footnote about the change in salaries and adjust formatting.

And those revised schedules are located at your desk.

If you would like myself or council uh former council member Morgan to go through this as property appraiser, all right.

We have no one in the queue.

So all in favor of the amendment signified by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The amendment carries.

Motion and second on the bill as amended.

Ms.

Morgan, questions only.

Questions only.

Alright.

Open the ballot, record your votes.

As a passed L E Z committee member, you appreciate that.

By your action, you have approved 2026 322.

We're gonna go ahead and do number 15 since that's gonna.

Yes, ma'am, thank you.

We'll go to 15 and then we're gonna go into Congratulations to Kim Paylor.

Right on.

Um all right.

Item number 15, 2026, 323.

Motion second on the bill.

No one in the queue, open the ballot, record your vote.

Eight yay, zero nays.

By your action, you've approved, twenty twenty-six, three twenty-three.

All right.

Now we're gonna go to page twenty-five.

Item number forty-five, I believe.

That's Mr.

Supervisor of Election, Jerry Hollins Bill.

Am I correct?

Or he's he's here for okay.

Whoa, whoa.

All right, we have a motion and second on the emergency.

All in favor of the emergency, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, the emergency carries.

We have a motion and second on the amendment.

Can someone please explain the amendment?

Through the chair of the committee, the amendment will clarify the initial board of supervisors as being revised to reflect the current membership.

Also place uh revised charter on file to correct the listing of the initial supervisors and then correct various scriptures.

All right, we have no one in the queue.

All in favor of the amendment signified by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, the amendment carries.

All right, we have a motion and second on the bill as an emergency as amended.

No one in the queue, open the ballot, record your vote.

Seven yay, zero and nays.

By action you've approved, twenty twenty-six, three ninety-seven.

Thank you for coming down, Mr.

Holland.

We appreciate you.

Alright, that brings us to I believe item number 23, EWU.

That's where we're going next.

And then we're going to item number 49 after that.

So what's what page.

14.

Thank you.

All right.

We have a motion and do we get a second on the rules amendment?

We have a motion and a second on the rules amendment.

Can someone please explain the rules amendment?

Or do we want to just glance at it?

All right.

I think everyone's familiar with the rules amendment.

Okay, you want it?

Okay.

For Mr.

Vice President Holland.

You got it.

Through the chair of the committee, the rules amendment uh revises the section 118107 waiver justification originally approved by Bill 2025 781 to reflect this new project going from the living learning center to now the track field improvements, reflecting the revised project scope and completion date of December 31st of 28 for the track, including public works as the oversight department.

And then we'll attach a revised term sheet to require retainage of 10% of the city funds until project completion and repayment of any city funds paid to Edward Waters if the project is not completed by the December 31st, 28 deadline.

Revises the project scope to allow funds to be used for any aspect of the construction of the track, including planning design.

Includes provision that no funds will be applied to the residence hall component or any other component of Edward Waters' broader capital project that they are undertaking.

Includes acknowledgement of a dual institutional and public purpose use of the dollars and includes the term of the use agreement in the term sheet.

It also attaches a revised use agreement to re reference this 2026 legislation rather than the prior 2025 legislation, reflects the revised project scope, revises the term of the use agreement to 10 years subject to automatic one year renewals unless terminated by the city with prior city council approval.

Provides for designated hours of general public use of 6 a.m.

to six uh to 9 a.m.

and then 6 p.m.

to 9 p.m.

on weekdays and then on Sundays from 12 p.m.

to 6 p.m.

Uh increases excuse me the minimum number of annual community-wide wellness events from four in the filed version to six allows the city to require additional insurance coverage as determined by risk management, allows the city to sue for specific specific performance on the use agreement if uh EW remains in default and then revises the assignment right to terminate and execution sections uh as recommended by OGC and agreed to by Edward Waters at rules yesterday.

All right, thank you so much.

We have no one in the queue, no questions on the rules amendment.

So all in favor of the rules amendment signified by saying aye.

Any opposed, the rules amendment carries.

Move the bill as of the second.

Motion and second on the bill as amended.

Councilmember Aries, recognized.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh just wanted to be added as a co-sponsor to this, but also this is part of the uh the missing piece of the $50 million that we we passed uh several months ago.

So I'm glad to see it here, and I'm glad to see that the previous committees also unanimously to approve this.

So I look forward to us unanimously approving it too and uh moving forward next week.

Thank you.

All right, we have no other speakers in the queue.

So let's open the ballot, record your vote.

Eight yay, zero and a's.

By direction you've approved 2026, 336.

And I do just want to say thank you to the neighborhoods and rules committee for the laborious time that they put into this to make it easy for us.

Uh I know I sat in on neighborhoods uh to be prepared for this meeting.

I know a lot of uh my other colleagues on this committee are also on those two committees, so um excellent work for those two teams.

Uh right.

So that oh, now we're going.

Someone shouted out.

Where are we going now?

CIA.

Page 26.

Uh number 49, 226, 419.

Motion and second on the emergency.

All in favor of the emergency, signify by saying aye.

Any opposed?

Emergency carries.

We have a motion and a second on the amendment.

Can someone please explain the amendment?

Through the chair to the committee, the amendment uh will correct language regarding the tourist development council's support of attracting this project.

Um they are not able to fund the CIA directly, but can uh take on other things that the city funds so that the city can redirect uh dollars.

So we'll get that uh correctly identified in the legislation.

Uh there's section numbering that need to be corrected and then scriptures.

All right.

We have no speakers in the queue on the amendment.

So all in favor of the amendment signified by saying aye.

Any opposed?

The amendment carries.

All right, we have a motion and a second on the bill as an emergency as amended.

And with that, we will go to Councilmember Aries.

You recognize here, does anybody else want to speak today or am I the only one?

I mean, all right.

So very quick, uh, we heard from these amazing chefs here today uh on in your district.

Um there's also one uh big restaurant in in district three as well.

Yeah, Capital Growth as well too, yeah.

All right, um, I'm Raw Aries, uh Mambo's Cuban Cafe.

But anyways, uh wanted to just uh talk about the importance of having an institution like of this caliber here in our city.

Um we when we saw that over the weekend, the Iron Man coming to Jacksonville, that's a global event.

Uh we we've seen in the past the Super Bowl coming to Jacksonville.

Now when we have something like the CIA coming to Jacksonville, it once again puts us in the world map.

Um, you know, to have maybe a handful of CIAs in the United States, having one in our backyard is a huge deal for us, no matter uh what industry you're in.

So just uh it's it's just another key component of our city how how fast and how far it's progressing.

So I want to just recognize uh the work that we're all putting up here in council uh to to make sure that we continue this momentum.

And uh I just want to thank all the chefs.

Uh I know um uh everybody was here today from from uh district five, but I just want to co-sponsor this and I hope that we we see it through the end because uh this is gonna be truly um an important critical piece of our our city's growth.

Thank you.

All right, Councilmember Lanen, you're recognized.

Uh thank you, Chair, and yes, Mamba's is a fine great district three establishment.

Um so we heard from a lot of cooks, but not a lot of accountants.

So I think we need to have a serious discussion on if this gets approved, how we pay for it.

Uh so my thoughts on this, I mean, pretty much the sorry, I figure we do that ahead of time this time.

That's a lot of my discussion on cash completion grants, is all the ones we've had to deal with that were unbudgeted when they were approved.

So I mean, I think the only line of sight here on how we'd pay for this.

Uh we just spent two million on the bill from 2025 385.

30 million of that was designated for downtown use.

And pretty much all 27 million, that's the first part of this, would have to come out of that.

There is no other available cash funding source that I'm aware of at this time.

And I realize this is a resolution, this is not an appropriation.

Uh Ms.

Mayor, you may want to clarify.

Then I see you shaking your head after let me say these comments, then we'll go back to you if that's okay with the chair.

Uh so there's the 27 million dollar piece.

Again, we may have some other budget good guys to where we're able to find another cash fund, but if it came back to us right now, that would have to be the funding source.

Then there's the eight million dollars for the community benefit agreement.

And through the chair, this was going to be a question uh to you, Ms.

Stefopoulos.

Uh the community benefit agreement, even though it's all not all directly budgeted.

We know we have that liability, and I'm fine with that $8 million piece over how many years it was, as long as I have the the warm and fuzzy that it would count as part of our community benefits agreement for workforce development.

Uh and then I mean there's gonna be an opportunity cost for this.

So we approve this resolution.

My understanding is we find out in June whether CIA agrees to come here.

We gotta put everything on hold.

Uh like don't I see our DIA CEO out there, but we certainly can't entertain any other uh sort of cash incentives between that time between when we send this resolution.

Hey, if you come here, you're getting 35 million dollars.

But we're about maxed out because again, the only available bucket of money I know of is that 30 million dollars that we set aside.

So if this comes to fruition, this will probably be kind of our for us first termers.

This will be our second term or big downtown thing.

So other things on the table, like Ambassador Hotel, uh the Gateway Publix, Laura Street uh trio, uh, the Baptist Hotel, like we just got to agree that we think this is the best investment for downtown because there's not going to be the available funds uh to do all of this.

So I'll listen to the discussion.

Uh I'll support the resolution, but I just want to make sure we all know that, hey, by supporting this resolution, we are tying up most of our available cash balance for downtown incentives by the vote of this resolution.

Yep, so and real quick, just uh just to clarify some some semantics and language there.

It is an ordinance, it's not a resolution, but it's it's ultimately the sentiment of a resolution.

Um and we have uh people in the audience I can speak to why it's an ordinance and not a resolution.

And also just to clarify, it says a package up to 35 million dollars.

So we are not obligated to give them 35 million dollars um uh just for whatever it's worth.

They can ask for up to that, but obviously as things progress and negotiations happen with DIA, that number can come down.

Um but I think you good, Ms.

Stevopoulos, or did you have something that you wanted to add?

We have a full queue.

So through the through to the chair, so I was just gonna address that it was an ordinance, and the reason we created it as an ordinance was because we were attaching that preliminary term sheet to it for as part of the legislation.

It was a discussion back and forth with the council president as the introducer, and that's ultimately where we landed on that.

Um but it does it is in the vein of a resolution that's how you would normally see something like that, but for that term sheet.

Um, and then to address Councilmember Lennon's comment that he had indicated he kind of wanted me to provide input on preliminarily, it does look like that this could qualify as workforce development, so it could speak to your countywide strategic focused obligations.

Obviously, we would have to see kind of the final product of what what this looks like and how the city's incentive package is built, but preliminarily it looks like it would qualify for that, subject to you know, additional information that would come in that we would look at at the time.

All right.

Thank you for that.

I know that's a big that was a big question of of mine and pretty much everyone else on the committee as well, I'm assuming.

But all right, Councilmember Salem, you're recognized.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh, and I guess this is to the auditors.

As I recall from the downtown, there was 30 million there, and we're talking about taking 27 of it.

Is that correct?

Up to 27.

Through the chair to Council Mr.

Salem, that's correct.

Why is this being split 27-8 to add up to 35?

What is magic about the eight million coming from uh uh workforce development?

I I don't quite understand that.

Is anyone here that would like to speak to that regarding the breakdown?

We have Mr.

Andre Wallace.

There we go.

I mean, I've heard I've had phone calls in regard to this, but I don't understand.

Council President Carrico can let's say let's get that addressed and then we'll go back to Councilmember Salem.

And then if Mr.

Wallace needs to come up, we can we can hear from him.

Good.

Sure, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Through the chair to pass President Salem, the 27 would be earmarked for the actual construction of the building to build the facility to build the culinary school, and the rest would be for operations and ramp up for actually uh getting the program started, they're gonna have to operate in the hole while we recruit and get students and so that's um operational dollars versus capital.

Okay, that explains that.

Why are we not amending this ordinance to to lock in those dollars?

That's what I prefer to do.

And we could state the the amendment that up to up to 27 from this particular fund and up to eight million from the CBA dollars.

I I see my sure my president waving his hand.

Yeah, through the chair, the CIA hasn't voted to come here yet.

So this is really a strong strong ordinance or resolution, if you will, to for them to present to their board.

So we don't want earmark dollars based on a vote that hadn't happened yet.

So they're gonna vote in June.

If they vote in June, they're gonna have to go back and get term sheets from the DIA and and all the other uh economic incentives.

They're gonna have to come back to council to actually get the money.

Okay, we're showing them a strong sign that Jacksonville is is wanting to come them to come here and serve our veteran population and serve our culinary population.

But then I'm looking at my colleagues.

It this is what we're looking at.

If they vote for it and it's is 35 million, it's a 27 and eight as we've spoken about.

Is that what I'm is that what I'm feeling?

That's my desire, yes, sir.

Okay.

Yeah, that's that's pretty much it.

I mean, again, all this has to go through uh negotiations with you know, economic development agreement and so on and so forth.

But um, but yeah, it's it's a little this is a little different one because like council president said the vote hasn't happened, but we yeah, those things will happen.

It's very unusual.

I don't know that any of us are real comfortable with this, but but if this is what it takes to bring this thing, and I I've had all the emails and just like the rest of you are, love to see this thing come downtown.

It seems like a uh uh a super bowl for the for the city in in terms of long term, but um I I prefer the more meat on the bone, but if this is what we need to do, I'll support it.

Thank you.

All right.

And we will go to uh Ms.

Pittman, you're recognized.

As a chair, I want to ask Mr.

Wallace to come up please.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for coming up you know I like to just talk a little bit about um details which I know you probably have already done um I just want to ask the question about Florida community college having a strong culinary program as well and has any um communications um been with any of the the leaders there the president there um if we're looking at spending this kind of money on bringing an institute to Jacksonville one are they supportive of it or will it be some type of feeder program um as well because I I do know that um the CIA is is uh institution that is highly rated for um chefs all across the country not just you know starting at the bottom so I want to know how that how is that going to work and then secondly if you all are going to be also working with the uh Duval County school board yes ma'am um andre wallace would injecture say partnership to address your first question over the past 18 months of the developer um corner lot development group as well as Jackson has had conversations with numerous community stakeholders including forest college of Jacksonville's president Dr.

John Abadonnell Dr.

Abandon is supportive of this particular project and looks to partner with Culinary Institute of America going forward that will all be subject to a negotiation between the downtown investment authority and corner lot development group as we move forward and progress what was your second question yes and school board um you know if we have some type of tracking program that's gonna start with maybe the students from high school to Florida community college to the institute yes ma'am as you look at the Culinary Institute of America they have a extensive track record in working K-12 equals well so I know there are culinary programs in K-12 through Duval County public schools they will be at the table and be part of this conversation.

And how would the the restaurant association be involved with this as well do you know as well bringing them part this is a all tent conversation we do recognize do not take lightly the amount of ask in terms of financial support so that means everybody citywide this is not just about downtown even though this is where the project may very well reside this is about making sure that the culinary industry of Jacksonville has the prepared talent that they need to work in the respective small business restaurants as well as our large established restaurants this is all encompassing this is a tent for Duval County itself.

As well as as the state I mean are we looking for a robust marketing program to get other um cities here I mean is it is this will this be the first one in Florida or in Jacksonville how so coloring Institute of America here are their locations New York City Napa Valley California San Antonio Texas Singapore their southeast location they're looking at Jacksonville.

Okay.

Good enough thank you so much.

Yes ma'am I was going to say Mr.

Wallace you can just grab a seat up here just in case we need anything else uh all right council vice president how and you're recognized yeah thank you Mr.

Chair uh through the chair to Mary can you just confirm for me this is a strong ordinance or resolution but there's nothing binding here right through the chair to council vice president howland you are correct in fact the legislation clearly indicates that it's subject to future council action to approve any sort of incentive package and subject to future council appropriation of any dollars towards the project.

Fantastic.

Thanks for clarifying that.

And um, you know, my normal concerns would be just like councilman Lennon's to go right to what is the funding source is this a prudent spend of of taxpayer dollars uh and I think uh Mr.

Lennon summed it up perfectly for me.

Um government spending is always a matter of priorities.

Um but to me this is potentially if we have the money and we do in that fund a high priority.

One thing we kept hearing about uh from many folks in the audience was about uh how it can feed uh so many restaurants in the area but that's not the only thing there is to CIA if you actually I went on the chamber trip last week they're in San Antonio because San Antonio is a military city CIA actually has contracts with the Department of Defense Department of War now where they train a lot of the chefs um and um uh kind of the um mess specialists in the Navy uh and how to make uh all sorts of meals for uh folks deployed underway whatever there's there's there's no other school that has that kind of contract with the Department of War that CIA does and that's one of the big appeals to Jacksonville to CIA is the the fact that you know our largest workforce is um the United States Navy through NAS Jackson Naval Station Mayport.

So when I always talk about my priorities it's always jobs it's always workforce development it's always veterans and CIA hits all three so to me it's a a high priority project and uh I fully support this resolution thank you.

All right.

Um before we go to Councilmember Aries for the segment did we already come to you for we already came to you for yeah hold on hold on hold on all right we'll go to council president you're in the queue did you want to speak again or are you in the queue from something else?

I was just in the queue to answer the past president's questions but since I am in the queue and I'm called on I'll just give my kind of um edification of why I really believe in this you know my background is in hospitality that was my first career and there was a point in my life when I was probably 22, 23 years old where I had worked enough, worked hard enough and got to a place where I was earning a salary that I know if I get if I did nothing else with my life I've gained the skills to be independent.

I can work I can take care of a family because I've gained those skills through the hospitality industry.

So we're giving thousands of people across Jacksonville and thousands of veterans an opportunity to get a second career with the veteran aspect and then for people to be trained up as professional chefs or work in the hospitality field you're giving them a a sustainable life and a path to independence.

I also worked at the Claire White mission school for hospitality um back in the day when uh when I first um linked up with councilwoman Pittman and I saw people that had nothing to even think on like people that were uh coming out of prison or formerly homeless and taught them just basic entry level skills in a 12-week program where that turned their life around giving them a skill set and some of those guys I follow them on social media are working for the PGA tour traveling around the country still cooking and still living the life so this uh is important to me because of my military connections as well my hospitality connections and and the potential that this could just skyrocket uh downtown Jacksonville and around with culinary uh culinary mastery that people would come visit our town for so we're building all this great stuff downtown we're gonna put a campus right in the middle of it uh that'll spawn off in some great restaurants great opportunities for jobs and tourism and I think it's a full package and uh happy to have been alongside the team working on this for the past eighteen months and I appreciate your support.

All right we have Councilmember Peluso for the first time then we have Councilmember Arias for a second time and Councilmember Lane for the second time.

Go ahead Councilmember Palouso thank you chair and I appreciate the ability to speak.

From what I understand from Councilmember Arias if bringing CIA to the city of Jacksonville means the food and Mambo's is bearable then I am very much in support of this.

Just kidding is perfectly edible.

Best fizzers in town uh I do want to make a few things uh of note as well uh this would be a campus not just for you know Florida or Jacksonville it'll be for the Southeast region right I mean it's my understanding so you know pretty much south of you know New York City right I mean there's a lot of land there.

So this would not just be a Jacksonville Florida or a Florida thing.

It would be for all parts of the Southeast which is a massive uh value for the city of Jacksonville uh is that people could say wow I got my education here the veteran uh point is is you know that was something that was sold to me as well when when folks from CIA come to speak came to speak with me so I couldn't agree more.

I'm very excited about that it is still the Department of Defense by the way.

Otherwise um the one thing that I'm that I want to make sure does kind of get that we all put our our foot down on a little bit more is this will be a downtown campus.

I hope I know that we still have been talking about that this could go somewhere else, but I and I heard you Mr.

Wallace a moment ago saying that's the intent.

I just want to make sure, unless you do want to come up and speak to it.

But it but my hope is that not hope, but my my next vote on this will be in support, especially if it's a downtown campus.

Do we feel pretty confident about that?

That was the CIA last week.

Their number one objective is for this to be in downtown Jacksonville.

Excellent.

That makes me extremely happy to hear as the downtown council member, that's incredibly important to me.

Uh, I will say some of the folks that have been pushing for this behind the scenes um really have uh uh a great mindset of what will help you know set Jacksonville apart compared to the other places that CIA was looking for.

So I want to be grateful to them.

I don't want to call them out because I don't know if I'm allowed to.

But I'm very very grateful to everyone being on board with this.

This will make downtown really something special, and I'm very grateful.

Thanks.

All right, Councilmember Aries, you're recognized.

He was a chair, so um, I just want to clarify one thing from Mr.

Peluso.

Well, actually, two things.

Uh you're there almost every weekend, and I have proof of that.

So all right.

Um actually, yes, it has to be and can only be a downtown building.

And I'll tell you this why, because the funding source that we're talking about is specific to that little geographical map.

So if they want to tap into 35 million dollars potentially, like the only money we have for them is if they put it in that spot or that area they would that we have.

So it's gonna have to be downtown, which I I think they have no issues with it.

Um, but the biggest part that I want to talk about today is um the bill that I that we passed just right now for EW, as well as the $15 million part of that $50 million uh piece had NEFBA and FSCJ and EW in it.

And one thing that that caught my attention today, and I just I walked over there to the auditors and Ms.

Stephopolis to ask them was why only 8 million is gonna go towards CBA credits when we put the money towards FSEJ and NEFBA for them to build their building that has workforce-related activities in it, all of that was considered CBA appropriations.

If if I'm mistaken, please let me know.

But I wanna say if this building is being built specifically for a workforce program, not for a hotel, not for commercial use, it's for a restaurant, whatever, but a workforce environment to to be able to train chefs, then this building should count towards a CBA obligation.

All 35 million dollars of it, not just eight million dollars.

So um correct me if I'm wrong, but can we have that conversation right now, please?

Yeah, Mr.

Peterson or Ms.

Stefopoulos, do you want to address that?

Through the chair to council member Arias.

Um, so we did not add a section or y'all did not add a section to that bill 2025-781 appropriating the 15 million, specifically identifying the NEFPA and FSCJ as workforce develop meeting the workforce development requirements of the community benefits agreement.

There was language added to the bill that addressed that there are workforce development facilities that were being constructed, but it was not a CBA acknowledged response.

I'll have to defer to Miss Stefopoulos, but I don't think the attorneys in OGC who are doing the analysis on all the CBA dollars to make sure that we meet our requirements as it relates to the Jaguars agreement, looked into that aspect.

So I as of now it is I it is not being tracked as meeting that 40 million dollar countywide strategic focus minimum.

Thank you for that.

The problem I have is that this building is only gonna be used for workforce, similar to FSCJ's and EFBA.

So I don't understand why we wouldn't count it towards the CBA obligation.

I mean, that's a significant amount to just be able to say, yeah, it's okay, we're not gonna count it.

Um so I definitely I want to say, and I'll and I'll have to find the videos, but I wanna say I I definitely ask that questions because I know Mr.

Howland, Mr.

Lenin, being on finance, they probably asked the same question during during that vote that we did for the 15 million dollars.

So I'll follow up with you guys, but um the next question I guess would be who who should we check in to make sure that it is a CBA um uh requirement.

Through the chair to council member Arias, I will coordinate with the appropriate attorneys in my office.

One of the things I would say is that the plain meaning of workforce development is actual training of a workforce.

So you providing money to outfit capital improvements to a facility or structure to construct a new structure, which may never be used ultimately to provide the training is questionable with respect to meeting our obligation under the CBA.

And so I think I'm hesitant to suggest that those dollars that go to capital improvements because there's not actual training of a workforce that's occurring with those dollars, that they would be counted towards our obligation under the CBA's countywide strategic focus.

Sure.

All right, I'm happy to have the conversation with membership.

And we'll continue because I mean this is uh an ordinance that we're gonna eventually take up later on.

We have time but I will say that it's obvious they're coming here it's gonna be a workforce and maybe we could even add stipulation should they decide to eventually not make it as a workforce then we could probably not count it towards the CBA but we'll continue this conversation but I think we're missing the mark if we're not attributing all 35 million dollars towards the CBA.

Thank you.

All right Council Member Lane you recognize thank you chair just to wrap it up here first off that's actually a great question Councilman Barriers I never thought to ask what about the 27 million so uh I know you said probably not possible but it's at least we're throwing the ground uh and again it's clear that's the will of the body to support this uh and so like I said from the beginning uh let's go all in on CIA but again that means we're going to have to say no because we are tying up all the available cash we have for any sort of cash incentive so again I will support this I am excited to see about everything I've read and researched looks like it will be a great economic driver um but again just pointing out uh that I'm hoping stuff does not come to us asking for more cash grants that we do not have cash on hand to support because we cannot get into the trap to where we're looking at over a hundred million dollars of unbudgeted cash completion grants again thank you all right councilmember salem you're recognized thank you chair through the chair I meant to follow up on the TDC comments that that one of you made what what dollars would TDC contribute to this through the chair to councilmember Salem so we looked extensively with um uh the OGC attorney whose staffs um TDC to see if TDC could contribute dollars directly to this project and based on uh Florida statutes they cannot however there are other items in the city's budget that TDC dollars could be used for um one is the Gator Bowl game the Florida Georgia game uh other items that attract tourists so uh the the motion uh an approval at TDC was to work with the administration to see if there are funds that the jar items that the general fund regularly funds to free up general fund dollars so that additional dollars could go from the general fund towards the CIA so that was the nature of the conversation I guess we'll get into this when we get the ordinance official ordinance thank you all right councilmember so thank you chair and it was not my intention to speak on this but we had better not touch CBA much further than what we've done homelessness and affordable housing are still major components of the CBA it's not all just you know workforce development uh it's fine that we can can touch some of it if that's the agreement with the administration and within this body but we have other parts of the CBA that we need to be discussing and talking about and if we were to spend it all just on this one project I think that would not be in keeping with the uh the what the initial plan was for CBA.

Thank you.

Right.

We have no other speakers in the queue I'll just go ahead and add my two cents um being that this is this is a transformational project.

I mean this is this is exactly what we wanted to do when we set aside that money in a designated area is saying hey look at Jacksonville come here this is where we want you so I don't know who made the point of whether it can be in Jacksonville or somewhere else in town yeah it's for me yeah it has to be in downtown otherwise I don't know where the money's gonna come from.

So and but I've been also very clear with um I don't I guess all the parties involved with the chamber and uh corner lot and DIA my preference would be for um them to get the number down I would love it if it wasn't 27 million dollars coming out of the 30 million because that would leave virtually three to do you know a very very small thing with so I've said I would like that number to come down.

I know that they're seeking funding from the state I know that they're seeking other money um from just various pots or whatever so I think this is a uh a bill that is gonna progress very nicely and um I won't belabor all the points but look culinary military support workforce I mean or workforce development these are all three huge things that we want to see in Jacksonville.

So I'm a applaud the team that has been working on this for 18 months.

Council president, I know you've been working on it for a long, long time so um that is that is where we are at right now.

So let's uh oh did I get added as a co-sponsor?

I just want to make sure I said that.

Uh count Councilmember Arius, Councilmember Salem.

So with that, let's open the ballot, record your vote.

Oh, did you want to go too?

Okay, Councilmember Pittman.

All right.

Yep, this is the bill.

Seven yes, one nay.

All right.

By your action, you've approved 2026 419 as an emergency as amended.

All right.

Committee that takes us back to page 8.

Item number 16, 2026, 324.

We have a motion and second on the amendment.

All in favor of the amendment signify by saying aye.

Any opposed?

The amendment carries.

Motion and second on the bill as amended.

No one in the queue.

Open the ballot, record your vote.

Eight, yes, zero and nays.

By your action, you approve 2026 324.

Item number 17, 2026, 327.

Motion and second on the substitute.

Can someone please explain the substitute?

Through the chair of the committee, the substitute is in lieu of a uh really long amendment.

Um it attaches a revised exhibit one to correct an account code, includes details on the steps taken by the city in making the declaration of necessity as it relates to uh these parcels being needed for the project.

Um it also contributes towards the uh future possibility of uh imminent domain proceedings.

We'll uh include applicable survey studies and reports in the on-file document as it relates to that, and then attach a listing of the 17 affected properties as a new exhibit.

All right, we have one.

Mr.

Diamond, are you on the substitute?

I can go to the okay, all right.

Let's uh vote on the substitute, then we'll go to Councilmember Diamond.

All in favor of the substitute signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Substitute carries.

We have a motion and second on the bill as substituted.

Councilmember Diamond, you recognize.

Uh two issues on this one.

One, the amount of money we're spending on downtown parks and on Emiratory is just outrageous.

I mean, hundreds of millions of dollars, and it's hurting other parts of the community.

There's simply no question.

The administration just decided to cancel a 10 million dollar project that would have opened up waterways, conserved land, and done all sorts of other good things in Jacksonville Beach.

Um I'm gonna be making a lot of noise about what the administration is doing with the CIP and how parks and other parts of the city are absolutely getting hammered by this administration.

This is just more of it.

That's one problem.

Second problem, if you all want to put your name on putting cash aside for eminent domain, taking people's private property, taking their private property by forcing them to go ahead.

But this is wild.

I do not support eminent domain for a park on tiny little pieces in order to do a right-of-way or something like that, to do a circle on Penman Road.

I understand what this is talking about.

I don't want any part of it.

Council Vice President Howland.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Actually, uh Councilman Diamond took the words right out of my mouth.

Um I have a question for the auditor, Jordan Mary, whoever wants to answer it.

Um, but there's a bullet there that says the office of general counsel is authorized to institute appropriate legal proceedings to acquire these properties by condemnation if negotiations are unsuccessful.

Uminent domain.

Is that the same language that was in the old Middleburg road?

It's just that this that was for a road.

That was for roadways.

This is for a park.

Through the chair to Council Vice President Howland, yes.

This is the same language that in the similar guardrails that were instituted on old Middleburg Road, and there was another Chafee Road was another project where this mimics the similar language that was in both of those projects as well.

Yeah.

Um I mean, government's supposed to work for the people, not bang people over the head and threaten them.

Um that's what I think we're doing here.

You know, when it's uh not expanding a roadway to, you know, help the citizenry in general.

It's instead parks.

Do we know anything about the properties that uh we're looking to potentially uh acquire and if not declare eminent domain?

Through the chair to council vice president Howland, and I know uh Miss Hunter Chief Hunter was able to address some of this in the rules committee um yesterday afternoon.

I think it's 17 parcels, all of which except one are zoned as commercial, one was commercial residential office.

Most of them I believe they were double checking and I see Chief Hunter coming forward were vacant they did not have active businesses on the parcels um and just remember that not all of this is um contemplating that the entirety of all of these parcels would be the subject of the negotiations or a potential taking it's potentially just we're obtaining easements temporary or partial easements or construction easements that kind of thing so I want to be mindful that just because we have a list of 17 properties doesn't mean that we're talking about taking the entirety of that property or all of the rights associated with that property but I think Ms.

Hunter would be able to address she was looking into whether there were any active businesses on any of the sites and that might be helpful information for the committee's consideration.

Through the chair please if Ms Hunter could address those questions yeah thank you.

Yeah absolutely council vice president howland um that is correct I mean Mary basically got everything correct I do have my staff actually going out to the field to double check to see if any of these properties have active businesses on them right now but they do range from less than a tenth of an acre up to one property 7.42 acres they are all zoned commercial except one of them is zone CRO so it's commercial residential office and um yeah I mean that's pretty much everything's consistent with what was in Chafee and the old Middleburg Road legislation.

So this would be for the Emerald Trail and for Hogan's Creek and for flooding and things like that.

So that would be the distinction between this and the other bills that you've seen before you thank you and Mr.

Chair if you don't mind I have one more question through the chair to Ms Defopolis would it be worthwhile to amend this legislation or amend the amendment to the substitute I guess um that says that the Office of General Counsel has to come back to city council before uh instituting appropriate legal proceedings to acquire these properties by condemnation if negotiations are unsuccessful.

To uh through the chair to council vice president Howland I would defer to Mr Garrett and Deputy Chris Garrett is here and he's the one that actually handles these proceedings he might be able to help address if there's a timeline consideration and how how these things progress through negotiations etc that that would um potentially impede the process to do that but I'll I'll defer to him to to address your question.

Please Mr.

Chair if you don't mind.

Yeah absolutely good afternoon Chris Garrett Officer General Counsel um to answer your question there's a process that's followed by statute which requires that we make a good faith offer before instituting imminent domain and that good faith offer is based on an appraisal um often the appraisals for commercial properties are very expensive and um essentially we would make an offer if there's negotiations and then that it takes 30 days and if there's no agreement then at that point we can institute the proceedings doesn't mean we stop negotiating um 99% of these ultimately work out but at that point we would get it set for an order of taking hearing which is where we can actually get title to the property so the project could proceed on the timeline and um that appraisal needs to be relatively current when we get there.

So if if we proceed with appraisals do negotiation and then come back then we'll probably have to pay for more appraisals that would be the main consideration.

Thank you and through the chair that that's my I mean an order of taking that that just is not not great.

For me the it's I mean I know if if if we take out the the phrase there that you can I know it's it's governed by statute but authorized to institute appropriate legal proceedings it's you don't have that hammer to negotiate with but um we want to build a park and uh we can't just seize people's property to build parks um it's just it doesn't sit well with me if the the streets are different um parks are another thing I I would rather you know not build that section of the trail than then seize people's personal property which is the foundation of American society you know individual property um I'd rather just not build the emerald trail than do that so unless we can take that out um and and make uh the city have to come back to council before it implements any legal proceedings related to eminent domain I'm gonna have to be a no on this thanks.

If I could Mr.

Chair and Ms.

Sickler or Mr.

Garrett might be able to correct me if I'm wrong Mr.

Vice President so I think there's also a this is in a these properties are in a flood area so I think there's some mitigation of repetitive flooding that's being addressed through this potential process that's not just with respect to building a park.

So I I think Ms.

Sickler could probably address that a little bit more I just want to there's more than just building a park I think associated with this project.

So through the Chaiter Council vice president that's correct Miss Stepopolis um described that this project uh while this particular portion of it is part of the trail it's related to the Hogan's Creek uh restoration and flood uh mitigation so this is on the southern end the outfall end of the uh of the Hogan's Creek outfall and so part of this project uh is related to um to uh restoration of that creek and reduction of flooding the uh parcels that we're looking at are um are generally vacant uh and we are not displacing any homes or businesses as part of this this outfall work um with the trail um in addition many of these properties are within the hundred year floodplain and so they're not as uh as utilized or as useful um from a commercial standpoint as you would if you were going in other locations all right we are gonna go to council member lanen yeah thank you chair uh first off on the financial aspect uh because I did ask mr peterson quite a few questions last week on this and then I asked some public court questions and um uh to you this morning uh but again my understanding that got me to a yes on just the financials to be fair I did not ask any eminent domain questions so maybe that is something we need to look into further but this is just shifting money around that's already been approved as part of the 30 million dollar portion that COJ was going to do originally this was never going to be either a JTA or a federal grant portion of the trail.

So there is no incremental money expense here it's still a 30 million dollar CIP project this is moving it from one fund to another and I see Miss Sickler nodding to that.

So I just want to point out here that it's a big number on here but it's basically an interfund uh transfer is how I understood the financial aspect uh that being said chair if uh if there is a lot more discussion of the eminent domain piece I I don't know if maybe uh a deferral's an option because I don't know if we're gonna hammer that out here.

Yeah um I mean I'm I'm willing to hear we have a full we have a full queue on this and to be perfectly honest I I'm hearing a lot of concern just I haven't I guess done a lot of the work on this but I also just searched my email and there wasn't anyone that reached out on it either.

And if you did I'm sorry I just didn't see it but um I I would personally like to sit down I'm not in a comfortable position to to vote on this as far as the number goes I agree with Councilman Lannon like that's probably not a concern at all.

The points brought up by councilmember diamond and council member hallen those are concerns for me.

So is there any specific deadline for this or would a deferral totally just you know derail this entirely.

What was it so what happens if we defer it are you saying they lose the grant money or no I don't think we're in that critical time frame is if it's a reasonable uh delay it should not jeopardize any of that.

What okay I don't know um okay so yeah as of did you want to say something I I think we need to defer it but I'm I'm willing to hear you out I know you were on some of these other committees that heard it.

Yes thank you chair I appreciate it.

I raised this issue, I believe in neighborhoods and uh Ms.

Hunter committed to um researching these properties um because I'm hearing different things here today.

I hear Ms Sickler saying there are no businesses, and I hear Ms.

Hunter saying there may be one business.

I want to know specifically if they're vacant properties, I have less of a concern than it is if there's an active business there and just taking it.

So um if I if I voted yes to I prefer a deferral, frankly, because I I want those properties researched individually and to find out if there's any of them uh that are potentially residential, I hear they're not, or is there an active business going on at any of those properties?

That's what I want to know.

Okay.

Yeah, and that yeah, and what district is it in, and that's something that I want to know.

We'll go to Council Vice President Howland, and then we're likely just gonna end up deferring those.

But go ahead, Jansen Vice President.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and I'd appreciate a deferral.

I think that's great, particularly uh that Ms.

Hunter is still out looking at some of those properties or her team is.

But um, Mr.

Peterson actually had an idea, he just brought it over to me that was responsive to my you know request of could city come back to council before it institutes imminent domain.

Mr.

Peterson, would you mind addressing that idea?

So the chair um uh would want OGC confirmation, I believe Mr.

Garrett can provide it.

But the legislation authorizes public works real estate to go and negotiate the sale of these properties, and if they aren't successful in the negotiation to go into the imminent domain proceedings, I don't see why they couldn't, you couldn't authorize them to go to negotiate with the stipulations that are outlined in the agreement.

Um, and if they needed to do imminent domain, come back to you on those individual parcels.

The reason they do this is because there are a number of parcels.

This is probably on the smaller scale of the ones that the city has done, where I believe old Middleburg was like 73 or plus properties.

Chafee was a large number of properties.

This being only 17, there may be only one or two that would need emit domain.

I would have to work with Mr.

Garrett to identify what would need to come out of this bill, but I think that's a possibility that you may want to consider based on your comments.

Okay.

Okay, so I mean, we could we could amend it to do that if OGC concurs, um, or we could defer and think about that amendment in the future, whatever you prefer to do.

I I think we're just gonna defer it for now because I think doing that, I I still want to see kind of the map.

I want to see where the lines are getting drawn, so on and so forth, but we might end up going that route.

Um, but let's give everyone a little time to work through this.

So uh I don't think it's yep, yeah.

All right.

Uh 2026 327 is deferred now, one cycle.

And then uh we're gonna go now, committee members to page 18, uh item number 27 for Councilmember Peluso, uh 2026 356.

I think he's here in the green room.

All right, we have a motion.

We have a motion, a second on the bill.

Open the oh, Councilmember Falusa.

You're go ahead, you're recognized.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, not sure if everyone had heard some of the conversation over the past day uh on this bill.

Um Councilmember Lannon did a great job, you know, showing up yesterday to kind of explain, hey, you know, as the JLia's on, like we we are trying to make sure that this process is transparent as possible.

Couldn't agree more.

Understand that the the work that you're doing with uh with the contractor is is seems to be going in the right direction.

What my concern is, and the reason why I even filed this bill is because we've just had a number of individuals come before us over the past three years talking a lot about medical examiner's office, different things that were less transparent in the past.

And so this is meant to allay a lot of those fears and also be an extension of the bill that we passed three years ago that I filed um discussing redlining and how we as a city recognize that our part that we played in it back in the 1920s, 30s and etc.

Our state and our federal government as well.

But it was us apologizing for it and saying we were going to work towards steps to make sure we do not fall back into any of the actions that would look like we're kind of, you know, doing anything that redlining had sort of insinuated or had done in the past.

And for those two remind you, redlining was basically um uh loans and mortgages were rarely provided to black and brown communities, and it was based off of an FHA, a federal um federal program for for supporting banks.

And so basically the FHA said, Hey, we would support your loan just if you don't invest in these specific areas.

A lot of those areas today are still heavily uh deprived of resources.

And so this is just to make sure that, you know, as we consistently see people show up and feel, I think they feel a kind of way about how city council and how government operates, and it's just to make sure that we kind of say to them, listen, we hear you, we understand, um, we are doing everything we can to make sure that we as a body are encouraging that we do not build any part of the jail.

Because I do think there might be an annex, for instance, um that might be a smaller scale uh uh maybe 50 beds or something.

I want to make sure that's not built in like Brooklyn or La Villa Um or the East Side.

And so that that's why I have this resolution.

I don't think that anyone who votes against it is, you know, some kind of you know Jim Crow, whatever.

This is not meant to be a uh this is not meant, this really was meant to be a pretty easygoing resolution.

Uh that's why it's not an ordinance or anything else.

Um, but I but I do hope that you guys recognize this that we we respond to the needs of those who show up here uh week in and week out, and that we do say, hey, we understand the the horrors of redlining.

Let's make sure we don't do that again with this jail.

Thank you.

All right, Councilmember Lennon.

Thank you, Chair.

And as uh Councilmember uh Peluso says, I am the chair liaison.

I was appointed by council or past President White in 2024.

Uh and I urge you to vote no on this.

And in fact, if it was any one of you that was bringing forward a resolution to rule out any part of your district, I would encourage you to oppose that.

I feel like I've done a good job of keeping everyone up here updated.

If you recall about I think it was two months ago now, myself, Director Goff and Mike Weinstein gave an update.

Happy to answer any questions if anyone uh wants me to uh remind everyone where we're at in the process.

Contracts already signed with a third party expert that does this type of work, and we're probably uh probably early next year is when we're expecting to get a preliminary preliminary report to us.

It's gonna have uh up to three selections or a site selections for consideration, but then the actual statement of work has five deliverables, and I think it's thirteen sub-deliverables.

Site selection is just one of the many parts of this process that we have undertaken.

Uh so again, it's uh here to urge you to support no, and it has nothing to do with where this resolution uh what part of town or anything like that.

It's just we cannot add more noise to what so far has been a political process uh with the mayor's office, JSO, and the council, at least through me.

You're a council rep for the new jail, uh, completely being in lockstep with each other.

Thank you.

All right, Councilmember Diamond, you're recognized.

Uh, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I'll be I'll be quick.

Uh you know, I I really don't like the process that we use for the medical examiner's office, and I don't really love that we're just paying some company to then tell us where this thing ought to go.

So I don't I don't know where this should go.

It's not gonna go on the beaches, so it doesn't really affect me that much.

But I am keeping an eye on the fact that we do keep just shoving stuff into certain neighborhoods, and I do think we ought to keep an eye on it.

I think the resolution is just performative garbage and is totally useless.

But I do have a question through the chair.

Uh, what is the administration's position?

Do you want to build a jail in a historically redlined neighborhood?

Do the chair, we want to follow through with the process that Councilmember Lane and is currently helping manage.

Yeah, but through the chair, are you comfortable if it lands in a historically, if if that process lands in a historically redline neighborhood, is the administration gonna support it?

I think that's an odd hypothetical that it's very unlikely to happen.

You think it's unlikely through the chair that this is not going to be uh the result is not gonna be that that the jail ought to go into historically, you know, red line district.

How do you know?

I believe that the space required for the jail, what has been discussed so far would demand more than what is available in some of these areas that folks are concerned about.

Okay.

The resources, the location, the necessity to be near close to the court.

I mean, the fact that this will not be a tower and should be a spread out campus, the variety of resources to provide, it's gonna require a bit of space.

Okay, but I mean, if you could just answer the question respectfully, if it does result in historically red line neighborhood, will the mayor support it?

That's let's wrap it up.

It's a hypothetical that I don't think we are willing to speak to.

All right.

Next, we have councilwoman Pittman, and then we'll go to Councilman Palouso.

So the chair, I just want us to be sensitive to this particular bill, right?

Um we have heard conversations from many other residents who are coming down here, and there have also been missteps and making sure that we are inclusive, and that this should not be in Red Line and districts.

Um, I just don't think it's a good idea.

Um, and so I just wanted to kind of bring it to your attention and keep it on the forefront because we do want the residents that vote for us to know that we are at least listening to them, and that and they play a part in the new site as well.

Thank you.

All right, and Councilmember Peluso, last one.

Thank you, Chair.

And I I first need to say this is not performative.

The first resolution was also not performative.

These are real things that have affected big cities in the South, including Jacksonville, very much so.

If you look at the definition of redlining based on the the document provided by the FHA, it says these are neighborhoods, primarily black and brown.

It does not use those terms, they use much harsher names.

It says areas with poor drainage, poor lighting, no sidewalks or infrastructure.

When you look at the map today, a lot of those red line communities still look very much that same way as they did in the 1930s.

This is meant to show people who live in this city and have continued to live in those communities that we are not going to build a massive structure or even a smaller scale one in their neighborhoods.

We literally just heard a member of the administration not be able to immediately say to the point of what I thought was a performative back and forth.

Um state.

Yeah, no, we fully expect not to we do not do that.

We we will not do that.

And by the way, we don't know when the jail will be built.

It could be under this administration, it could be seven administrations from now.

This resolution is meant to be the voice of the council saying we recognize our role in redlining, and we do not believe that we should be building any sort of public building, especially of this scale and size in a red line community.

I understand the main campus will be sprawling in large, but again, there might be annexes, there might be smaller scale pre-detention trial centers, right?

You could have 50 beds in Brooklyn in Durkeyville in Brentwood.

Don't tell us this doesn't happen, it's happened, and and I'm getting worked up because I I'm very frustrated that there's a sense that it's meant to be performative.

It is not.

Um, this is something I've been working on for quite some time.

I did a nois meeting about it months ago to try to get consensus.

I thought that we were there, and I'm I'm I'm a little frustrated.

So, so please just just listen to the people who consistently come up here.

But I I just hate looking at them and for them to walk away thinking, oh yep, yet again, city council doesn't listen to us, like nothing upsets me more.

This is a democracy.

Let us listen to the will of the people.

Um, and please support a resolution, a non-binding thing, but still the will of our body.

I think it's pretty pretty measured in my approach.

Please vote it up.

All right.

We have no other speakers in the queue.

Um, I'll just add my two cents before we vote.

Um, I don't think it's performative, I think you're passionate about it, and I think you're passionate about the first bill that you put forward as well.

Um, so it's um it's that's where it's at.

But I'm also more respective of the process that we've already put in place that is apolitical because wherever the jail does go, it's gonna be a calculated thing, it's not just gonna be a um willy-nilly uh we decided to put it here because it's a it's a rundown neighborhood, so um, that's the process and methodology that I think we need to use for really any type of any sort of thing that of that magnitude.

So that's why I I won't be supporting the resolution, but I do understand your intentions behind it.

So with that, we will open the ballot and record your votes.

One yay, seven nays.

By direction, you have denied 2026 356.

Item all right, and then now we need to go back to page, where are we at?

Uh 18?

Yes.

All right.

Item number 18.

You need something, Miss Pittman.

Okay, you recognize go ahead.

Okay, you want to reconsider?

All right.

We need a motion to reconsider.

We have a motion and a second on the reconsideration of 2026 356 three fifty six.

So all in favor of the reconsideration signified by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The bill is now reconsidered and on the floor for a vote.

So we're looking for yeah, we need a motion.

Okay, we have a motion and second on twenty twenty-six three fifty six.

No discussion.

Correct.

Okay.

Let's open the ballot and vote.

Yeah.

That's weird.

It says it on her screen.

Yep, I know.

All right, we'll get it fixed up.

There we go.

Item number twenty-seven, twenty twenty-six, three fifty-six.

Nope.

Okay.

If we need to take a little five minute recess, we can.

Oh, all right.

Well, we're gonna do a five minute recess before.

I guess I gotta go to the restroom, man.

All right, twenty twenty-six three fifty-six.

Zero yes, eight nays.

By your action, you have denied twenty twenty-six three fifty six.

All right, item number twenty-eight, twenty twenty-six three sixty-two.

Wait, no, no, no, hold on.

Unless it's already loaded.

It's already loaded, let's vote on it.

Gosh.

All right.

Item number eighteen, twenty twenty-six three thirty-one.

Motion and second on the amendment.

All in favor of the amendment signified by saying aye.

Any opposed?

The amendment carries.

Motion and second on the bill as amended.

Open the ballot, record your vote.

Eight yeah, zero and a's.

By your action, you've approved 2026, twenty twenty-six three thirty-one.

Item number nineteen, twenty twenty-six three thirty-two.

Motion second on the bill.

No discussion.

Open the ballot.

Record your vote.

Did this uh go to waterways?

Okay.

A zero nays.

By reaction, you've approved 2026 332.

Item number 20, 2026, 333.

Motion to second on the amendment.

All in favor of the amendment signified by saying aye.

Any opposed?

The amendment carries.

Motion second on the bill as amended.

No one in the queue.

Open the ballot, record your vote.

Eight yay, zero nays.

By reaction, you've approved 2026 333.

Item number 21, 2026, 334.

Motion to second on the bill, no discussion.

Open the ballot, record your vote.

By your action you've approved, 2026, 334.

Item number 22, 2026, 335 is deferred.

Item number 23 has already been taken up.

Item number 24 has already been taken up.

Item number 25, 2026, 353.

Motion and second on the bill.

No one in the queue, open the ballot, record your vote.

8YA, 0 nays.

Alright, 2026, 353.

Uh is approved.

Item number 26, 2026, 354.

Motion and second on the bill.

No one in the queue, open the ballot, record your vote.

8YA, 0 nays.

By direction, you have approved 2026 354.

Item number 27 has already been taken up.

Item number 28, 2026, 362.

We have a motion and a second on the bill.

So just want to make sure and I'll fill out the information that needs to be filled out.

Thank you.

All right.

Council President Caracal.

Yes, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I will also abstain from voting on this as this will earmark dollars to go over to the Kids Hope Alliance, which they'll put out on the streets for competitively bid RFPs, which my organization may qualify for and may apply for.

So out of an abundance of caution, I will abstain on this legislation.

Alright, Councilmember Lennon, you recognize it.

Thank you, Chair.

I'll support this piece of legislation.

I know certainly it was uh the council presidents uh very uh important uh part of his initiatives for his present year.

Uh but as we get into the budget season, um I keep on bringing up nonprofits, right?

Uh KHA has gone from 35 to 65 million in four years.

It's pretty much the fastest growing line item in our budget.

That's a 17% annual growth rate.

Uh and again, like I said, I'm gonna support this, but as we go into the budget, uh the auditors gave us the report a while back.

We gave 160 million to 300 plus separate nonprofits, and that's by far been the growing uh the biggest growing part of our budget.

Public safety has grown a little as overall percent of our budget makes sense.

We've been adding police and firefighters.

Uh non-public safety city departments has actually stayed flat.

The mayor and I've given her credit three years in a row.

We've kept head count flat from all other city operating departments.

Uh and then debt expense.

We've done a good job of keeping debt expense about the same.

It's about six, five percent of our overall but uh overall budget, so nothing significant, but it's that non-departmental revenue, which is basically nonprofits and cash incentives.

That has been the biggest growing part of our budget.

And if we're gonna be serious about where we're looking for opportunities this coming budget year, we have to get serious about looking at the non-core functions of uh the budget.

Can't be public safety, public works, parks, and libraries are the biggest chunk of that.

It's really here.

So again, just everyone get thinking as we go into the budget season how we're gonna tackle the uh fastest growing part of our budget.

All right, council member Aries, recognized.

Alright, thank you, Chair.

You sign me as a co-sponsor, please.

Thank you.

All right, council member Salem, you're recognized.

Thank you, Chair.

The follow-up on Councilmember Lane's uh comments if you recall during the budget process.

I'm I fought hard to get the journey dollars into KHA because I was very concerned of getting two separate entities funding children's programs.

So we threw that, I want to say two to three million dollars into KHA, and now this five million is going into KHA, but it is it is being put out there that this is a one-time funding.

But I've got to believe there will be people that will want this to be recurring.

So I agree with Council Member Lane and 200%.

Um we need to have one entity for children's services, and it needs to be funded appropriately, and we have put a lot of money into this, and I think it does need to be scrutinized in next year's budget.

Thank you.

Alright, Council Vice President Howland.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

If this were Parliament, I would have stood up and cheered after Mr.

Layman's comments.

I also would probably have bad teeth.

But in any event, the um non-departmental expenses uh is exactly where we're gonna have to look during this budget cycle upcoming.

Uh we don't know what's going to be on uh the referendum in November.

We don't.

We don't know what the voters are gonna decide on whatever is gonna be on the referendum in December.

So we're gonna have to really take a fine-tooth cone to the budget.

And it's in those non-departmental expenses, as you mentioned, where I think we'll find um where we could cut back if we need to.

Uh where we could hold back or hold below the line if we need to.

So good point.

Thank you.

Yeah, and that's there's no speakers in the queue, and I'll just add the the final comments here.

This committee, ever since budget and really throughout the year, we've been very consistent on that message.

Very consistent, very repetitive on that message.

Um, so when we do get the final budget presentation and we have to take a look at all of those things, it shouldn't be a surprise.

Like it shouldn't be a shock and awe factor.

It's it's something that we've been talking about on this committee for quite some time.

So, uh, with that, we have no other speakers in the queue.

So let's open the ballot and record your vote.

It's not working.

Okay.

Let the regular flag council member Pittman is abstained.

Okay.

Five yes, one nay, two abstentions.

By direction, you have approved 2026 362.

All right, we're getting close, ladies and gentlemen.

So, couple more second readings, then a couple more emergencies, and then we're gonna take a five-minute recess, stretch our legs to come back and do the subpoenas.

Item number 29, 2026 377 is uh second reading.

Item number 26, 380, second reading 381, 382, 383, second reading.

Takes us to item number 34, 2026 384.

We have a motion and second on the emergency.

All in favor of the emergency, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Emergency carries.

Okay.

Motion and second on the bill as an emergency.

Councilmember Aries, recognized.

All right, thank you, Chair.

Uh normally I don't do I don't do emergencies, but I'm gonna state the nature of the emergency and the funding source on this part.

So um, emergency, it's uh Ironman Jacks was obviously here in town.

Uh they spent nearly $500,000 on JSON and JFRD uh along with public works and parks department.

So um they because they came in late after the budget uh session had already passed, uh, they couldn't be added into sports and entertainment's budget uh this year that just happened.

So uh thankfully somehow um TDC was able to help out through uh visit jacks.

Uh but ultimately when they normally go to a city they they they receive a little bit more in tourism dollars um from the city itself.

And so because they fell short this year because they came late in the game.

Um I use some of my strategic dollars that I have still sitting in my account um for this uh initiative.

Um I still have some more dollars remaining, so my dollars will expire by the end of this fiscal year.

So you're gonna see some more legislation on my part.

Um, some that's gonna go towards um I'm working on legislation for uh first course uh crime stoppers as well as other safety components of things, but I just wanted to let you know where the funding source came from and the nature of the emergency, and then when it comes to the JAS Festival, the same thing.

Um, as expenses start to go up, I wanted to make sure that we continue to highlight our city in a positive way.

And the JATS festival is right around the corner.

So the nature of the emergency is because of that, because of an event that just happened and an event that's about to happen the next week.

Um so I just hope you guys support it.

Thank you.

All right, Councilmir Landon, you recognize.

Uh through the chair uh to Miss Norris.

Uh a lot of us were getting real-time complaints on Saturday um from uh different constituents, and I'm glad I think overall it was very successful.

Uh, but I'm just hoping whoever the right parties are, whether it's JSO, sports and entertainment, just like debrief to see how we can make things uh go smoother next year.

Uh and I can talk to you offline about some of the specific areas uh in town I was getting uh uh the loos complaints from.

So uh good.

I I want to make sure we have it next year, but it does seem like we could learn some uh lessons learned to make it even a smoother experience next year.

All right, Councilmember Aries, you recognize.

Uh to uh to your question, Mr.

Lane and so I've already reached out to the administration to visit Jack, sports and entertainment to Ironman team.

Um they're gonna come back in about thirty to forty-five days to talk about the economic impact to the city and at the same time we're gonna start the conversation as the route, mainly the the bike path.

That's really the one that caused the most uh disruption in our city.

And um uh we have a commitment to see how we can make it better safer as well, maybe even changing the route somewhere else.

So I'll keep you posted on that, but that'll be about thirty to forty five this from now.

Thank you.

All right, the bill has been moved and seconded, so with that we will open the ballot record your votes.

By reaction, you've approved twenty twenty-six three eighty four as an emergency.

Item number thirty five, twenty twenty-six three eighty five is on second reading.

And then the rest of the bills are on second reading right here, twenty twenty-six three eighty-six, three eighty seven, three eighty-eight, three ninety, three ninety-three, three ninety-four, three ninety-five, three ninety-six, uh, three ninety-eight, four sixteen, and four eighteen.

But we do have another emergency item uh number forty, twenty twenty-six three ninety-two.

Motion and second on the emergency.

All in favor of the emergency signify by saying aye.

Any opposed?

The emergency passes.

All right, we have a motion and second on the bill as an emergency, no discussion, open the ballot, record your vote.

Eight yay, zero nays.

By reaction you've approved twenty twenty-six three ninety-two.

All right, we already took up item number forty-five.

We already took up item number forty-nine.

So we're gonna take a five-minute recess, come back and look at the subpoenas.

Um, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, All right.

We are gonna get back to the meeting now.

So I don't know if we have to gavel back in or not.

Whatever.

We're gonna go ahead and end our recess.

We do have a quorum, but we are waiting on a few council members to make their way uh back to the dais.

So we have uh basically completed uh everything on our agenda.

We've read all the second reading items into the uh record.

So now ultimately we have three subpoenas to take up for uh the special investigative committee.

Uh the subpoenas are for Regina Ross, uh Jody Brooks and Vicky Cavey.

They will be taking up separately.

So with that, what is the proper order of events here, Miss Stephopoulos?

Do we need to have Mr.

Teal come down and explain each one of these subpoenas to us and then we just vote on it or what?

Mr.

Chair, what I would recommend is that you take each one of them up in turn.

So the first item you have on your agenda for consideration is the request by the special investigatory committee on JEA matters for subpoena of Regina Ross on June 8th, 2026 and June 22nd, 2026, if needed.

Uh, I would recommend that if you want to call up Mr.

Teal, he can explain what is contemplated in each of the subpoenas because there are requests for records in some of these, so that that's on uh on the record for consideration by the committee.

And then one of the other things that we've discussed, and it came up during the last SIC meeting, was just making sure that there's information on the record for the committee's consideration as far as how do the subpoenas and the request for records further the um the charge of the special investigatory committee as well as the ultimate legislative goal and aim of the city council.

Should they be issued for the specific testimony that's being sought?

Okay.

So do we need when you get to the end of an item?

I would just to the extent that there's a desire to issue the subpoena, you would make a motion to issue a subpoena to provide the name and then the date that the subpoena would be issued to.

I think that would be sufficient for your motion.

If you were to make any changes to the subpoenas that are being proposed that Mr.

Teal is handed out, we can talk about that.

But to the extent you just want to move forward with the subpoena as recommended, then you would just make your motion in that fashion and get a second.

Okay, so go to Mr.

Teal, get the motion, voted up or down, and go to the next one.

You want to take a motion first, you can, but in this instance, I think it might help the committee in determining how to make the motion or if they want to make that same motion to let Mr.

Teal go first.

Yeah, that's fine.

Let's get going.

All right, Mr.

Teal, come on down, give us a uh short synopsis of the piece of paper that's in front of us for Miss Regina Ross.

The chair of the committee, Jason Teal, uh City Council Secretary, legislative council.

Uh so basically these are virtually identical uh other than the uh the dates that are specific to each one.

So um Regina Ross, uh what this does is compels her to appear before the SIC on June 8th uh at 1 p.m.

and um June 22nd at 1 p.m.

Now obviously the sick can release her from uh from the subpoena if she uh if it's not necessary for her to appear on either of those dates.

Um it is it does also attach an exhibits of uh of documents that would be requested, uh specifically on page four is the documents that are requested.

Uh, but it does compel the production of those documents a week before the testimony, so it compels uh the documents to be produced uh to me on behalf of the sick by June 1st uh 2026.

Uh otherwise it's uh it's pretty straightforward.

You know, request them to be uh in electronic format if possible, just so it's easier to uh to sort and produce or to edit or not edit, but uh organize normal definitions uh within the uh the documents as to what we're referring to and those kinds of things, but um, but yeah, those are the um the the requests is those six things.

Those same six items were requested from each of the witnesses, uh and so um uh they'll be consistent across the board.

Um, one thing I wanted to mention though, as far as the uh legislative purpose.

I know that there was some discussion at the SIC meeting for um for what the legislative purpose uh would entail.

Um I wanted to add some additional ones.

Uh that's uh as you know, the council has the ability to uh amend the JEA charter internally without it having to go to a voter referendum.

Uh and so one of the things that uh potentially could result is uh is that the council deciding to amend the charter potentially to um if there are allegations of a of a toxic work environment or toxic culture with regard to the uh the CEO or any executive managements uh that maybe that the uh the board should be compelled to investigate that uh as opposed to uh within their discretion, that would be something that that you could potentially come up with with it would be a charter change.

Um you know that JEA contributes to the city uh and um uh with regard to the uh combined cycle plant as well as the um uh capacity fee issue that maybe uh one potential look uh for legislative fix might be that when the um when you have a commitment that large, for example, thirty three hundred and fifty million dollars that maybe that there is a requirement on whether or not there's a role for the city council in those types of uh of commitments uh that might be something because they are uh required to present uh to do a contribution to the city, which is is dictated uh or established by formula, I think.

So um so maybe that might be a way to uh to to amend the charter or to ordinance code requires some sort of city council at least acknowledgement or commitment.

Uh and then finally uh with regard to the capacity fees, similar to the the combined cycle um regarding the uh the dollar amount that the fees uh that their tariff program is uh is in essence a JEA policy.

Uh maybe that should be codified uh in in terms of uh how they are supposed to collect this, what procedures they they may use, uh make a requirement that they collect these.

Uh so that's a potential other uh legislative fix that could results of uh of this testimony that is uh to be requested both in these documents as well as the um the witness uh testimony.

Okay.

Um yeah.

Well we'll go to Councilmember Diamond uh for any comments and then we can see.

I was gonna make a motion and just clean this up, but I don't care if you can do it, sir.

But uh so I'll make the motion.

I just have one quick comment.

Uh so I move that the finance committee approve the sick recommended uh subpoena does teachum for Regina Ross to appear Monday, June 8th, 2026 at 1 p.m.

Uh and if needed Monday, June 22nd, 2026 in substantial form that has already been provided by Jason Thiel.

All right, we have a motion a second on the subpoena for Regina Ross.

Um, can I just add one comment?

Yeah, sure.

Uh just the one comment is that uh I I know you all haven't been watching the sit committee meetings, but the the board chair really just tore into Regina Roche and uh when we had him um here and it was really kind of disturbing to me.

I I've never seen that happen quite like that.

Um and when Regina Ross was here, she basically begged us to issue the subpoena.

She's like, this is what unlocks my ability to tell you all the truth.

So this is an important subpoena, and that's a wrinkle that we didn't cover this morning.

Thank you.

Okay, yeah, I just have one question because um on the agenda it says June 22nd, like if needed, um but on here it it says June 8th and on Monday.

So can we just if it's not needed, can we redact this or something or just remove it or so the way the uh dispoena usually works is that she'd have to be there if we wanted to have her there, and but we can just decide we're good and release her.

Okay, you sick has that right.

Okay, okay.

So there's got it.

Okay, awesome.

So we have a motion and a second on the subina for Regina Ross.

No one else in the queue, so do we do this ballot or hand vote or what?

Okay.

Okay, we'll just do a voice vote.

All in favor of the subpoena, so signify by saying aye.

Aye, any opposed?

The subpoena passes.

Item number two uh consideration of request by the special investigative committee on JEA matters for subpoena of Jody Brooks on June 8th, 2026.

Mr.

Teal, go ahead.

Through the chair, the committee, same as with Regina Ross, except for the fact that she's only being compelled to appear on June 8th.

It's the exact same uh documents uh as uh Regina Ross was requested to produce uh same due date, if you will, uh that it be done a week before.

So the due date for the documents would be on uh Monday, June 1st uh 2026.

Otherwise it's uh it's in all substance um exactly the same as Regina Ross's.

All right.

Thank you.

So I guess we just need a motion.

All right.

So we have a okay, we have a motion and a second by uh Councilmember Salem, Councilmember Diamond for the subpoena on Jody Brooks to appear Monday, June 8th at 1 p.m.

No discussion.

All in favor of the subpoena signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The subpoena passes.

Mr.

Chair, I'd like to call for recorded vote.

Okay.

What do you mean?

Sorry.

Uh I'm not asking that it be done on the machine.

I'm fine if you read it into the record.

Um, Mr.

Chair, would you like me to call on each member and then have them announce their vote?

Is that sufficient for the recordation, Mr.

Diamond?

Sure.

Okay.

Um Councilmember Diamond?

Yes.

Councilmember Salem.

Yes.

Council Member Lennon.

Yes.

Yes.

Councilmember Carlucci.

Yes.

Councilmember Arias?

Yes.

Councilmember Pittman?

Yes.

Council by Council President Carico.

Yes.

All members.

And Councilmember Vice President Allen.

Says yes.

All the way over here.

Yeah.

In the COVID chair.

Yeah.

All right.

So that brings us to item number three.

Consideration of request by the special investigative committee on JEA matters for subpoena of Vicky Kavey on June 22nd, 2026.

Mr.

Teal.

For the Chair of the Committee.

Uh this is essentially the same as the other two, except for the fact that uh Ms.

Kavey is subpoenaed to appear before the sick committee on June 22nd at 1 p.m.

Uh her documents are due to uh to me uh on June 15th, 2026, which is one week prior.

Uh otherwise it's essentially the same.

Uh one thing I did want to mention is that all of these subpoenas with uh Ms.

Brooks and Ms.

Cavey are for dates that they have previously specified that they are available.

Uh so I did uh I failed to mention that with regard to Ms.

Brooks, but I wanted to make sure that the committee was uh was clear on that point as well.

All right.

Any questions or any discussion?

Seeing none looking for a motion.

All right, we have a motion and a second on the subpoena for Vicky Cave to appear Monday, June 22nd, 2026 at 1 p.m.

Um, Mr.

Diamond, you need a record?

Oh, okay.

Uh Mr.

Diamond, how do you vote?

Yes.

Salem say yes, Councilmember, Councilmember Lennon?

Yes.

All right, and Joe Carlucci, yes.

Councilmember Arias?

Yes.

Councilmoman Pittman?

Yes.

Council President Carico?

Yes.

Council Vice President Hallen.

Yes.

All right.

Show the subpoena passes.

All right.

Anything else?

We good?

Do we need to do anything else?

Okay.

331.

Thank you.

Finance committee members.

This meeting's adjourned.

That was anticlimatic.